Category: The Authorities

Canadian Anti Scam Centre

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) is the central agency in Canada that collects information and criminal intelligence on mass marketing fraud (e.g. telemarketing), advance fee fraud, Internet fraud, identification theft complaints and similar matters.

The website is www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca  and contains information on frauds, advice on how to protect yourself against fraud and how to report scams.

In Canada, there has recently been :

  • A marked increase in the amount of mail with too-good-to-be-true offers
  • Frequent calls offering get-rich-quick schemes or valuable awards
  • Numerous calls for donations to fake charities
  • Many people finding their banking records show cheques or withdrawals made to unknown companies

CAFC advice that if you suspect that someone you know has fallen prey to a deceptive telemarketer, don’t criticize them for being naïve. Encourage that person to share their concerns with you about unsolicited calls or any new business or charitable dealings. Assure them that it is not rude to hang up on suspicious calls. Keep in mind that criminal telemarketers are relentless in hounding people – some victims report receiving 5 or more calls a day, wearing down their resistance.

The Vision of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

  • Be innovative in its efforts to disrupt frauds and scams through coordination with its partners.
  • Be an international Centre of Excellence providing the most comprehensive data available in Canada with regard to fraud related resource material, scam types, statistics, trends, and demographics, as well as the size, scope and impact of fraud.
  • Work closely and cooperatively with its numerous partners in a combined effort to proactively identify emerging scams, trends, threats, and criminal organizations operating in Canada across multiple jurisdictions.
  • Provide the highest possible quality service through technology in partnership with law enforcement, government agencies at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, and the private sector.
  • Provide valuable, timely and compassionate assistance to victims of fraud.

Stay safe online.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

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Citizens Advice Scams Action Service

In 2018, Martin Lewis took legal action against Facebook for publishing scam adverts that used his image. A settlement was agreed which included funding a new Citizens Advice Scams Action service.

The service is intended to help support people who have been – or who might be impacted directly – by online scams.

It is to provide help for people through telephone, chat and website content and there can be face-to-face support for those who need it.

The Citizens Advice Scams Action can be contacted by phone on 0300 330 3003 or through the citizens advice website at https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/scams/reporting-a-scam/

Action

Once they got all the information needed, Citizens Advice will pass this to Trading Standards as they don’t investigate scams themselves.

Trading Standards gathers information about scams so they can take legal action against scammers and involve the Police where relevant.

This is a step forward in the battle against scammers.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

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Big Increases in Identity Fraud

Identity theft is when someone collects enough information about you to pretend to be you in order to access your bank account, use your credit card details, open accounts in your name, take out loans in your name, block your access to your own accounts etc.

This is a very destructive form of fraud as it can be very difficult for the victim to prove it wasn’t them taking out the money and to get their identity back, including access to the various accounts.

UK Government statistics show almost 190,000 cases of identity fraud in a 12 month period with CIFAS (the fraud prevention service) recording increases of 8% per year.

The figures also show that levels for older people are rising faster, suggesting they are being targeted for this type of fraud.

Most people do not realise they have been a victim of identity fraud until bills start arriving and demands for repayment for loans they didn’t request.

To avoid becoming such a victim, you need to make sure you keep personal information to yourself – starting with setting social media network privacy levels to high, use strong passwords and never reveal passwords to anyone in emails or by phone.

Always be cautious of emails or websites or text messages offering anything too good to be true.

Stay safe.

If you have any experiences with identity theft, do let me know, by email.

Binary Options Trader in Court

Binary options is a form of stock market trading where essentially you are betting will go up or down rather than on how much it will move.

That sounds straightforward and maybe a 50:50 chance of winning but in fact 80% of people who try lose their money.

Lee Elbaz, the former chief executive of a major binary options company, goes on trial today in the US charged with defrauding clients of nearly $150m.

Her role in the fraud was first exposed with the help of a whistleblower, in November 2016, and some of the evidence presented by that insider has been used to prepare the case against Ms Elbaz.

The binary options scandal was a high-tech variant of boiler room scams. The fraudsters would cold call potential investors in other countries and persuade them to put money on whether a share or commodity price would go up or down. Initially the investor would see their money growing in an account held by the company and be encouraged to invest more — sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds. However, when they tried to withdraw the money the binary options company would prevaricate and then stop taking their calls.

Billions of dollars was stolen from consumers all over the world, including the UK and US.

Ms Elbaz, also known as Lena Green, was the chief executive of Yukom, a company that operated binary options trading platforms under trade names such as BigOption and BinaryBook. Her team modelled themselves on Jordan Belfort — the New York stockbroker and scammer who inspired the film The Wolf of Wall Street. Ms Elbaz even took the team to see Belfort when he visited Israel.

The US government alleges that from around May 2014 through to around June 2017, Ms Elbaz directed a scheme to defraud binary options investors by lying to them and misleading them about the nature of binary options trading. Ms Elbaz, an Israeli citizen, was arrested when she flew to New York in September 2017.

Before the exposure of the fraud, binary options companies were allowed to openly advertise in the UK. One, Banc de Binary, sponsored Liverpool and Southampton football clubs. It was later forced to pay up $11 million in fines in the US before being wound up. The Israeli government banned such companies operating from Israel in October 2017 and in 2018 European governments barred the operators from selling to their citizens.

Good riddance.

If you have any experiences with binary options or similar scams – do let me know, by email.

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Home Insulation Fraudster Jailed

Home insulation fraudster Adam Roberts targeted pensioners to fund his extravagant lifestyle, which included a £90,000 Aston Martin and a Rolex watch.

Adam Roberts ran a fraudulent business selling home insulation to pensioners at hugely inflated prices and has now been jailed for three years.

He charged pensioners in Surrey , Hampshire, Dorset and Devon ludicrous prices for home insulation while falsely claiming it would save them money on their council tax and energy bills.

In many cases, victims had recently had their homes insulated under a government scheme, meaning the work was also unnecessary.

Judge Rufus Talyor said: “It seems clear to me that there was an effort to target the elderly and vulnerable,” mentioning the victims were all aged 65 or older and some had serious health problems including blindness and memory difficulties.

Adam Roberts’ business  Eco Energy Advice Ltd (EEA), traded for just one year between 2015 and 2016, making £1.5 million, although not all of its income was the result of misleading sales techniques.

During that time, Roberts described himself as the CEO or “the King”, despite being subject to a bankruptcy order prohibiting him from operating a business. He circumvented this order by having his sister, Laura Oxley, act as EEA’s only named director.

Judge Taylor said EEA had operated “almost like a boiler room”, with numerous telesales agents cold calling pensioners and saying “almost anything to get someone through the door”.

Field sales agents would then visit customers to sign them up to the scheme, telling them their insulation was dangerous or out of date, even when perfectly serviceable, and promising fictitious discounts or council tax rebates to pressure them into signing up.

A reputable company will never ask you to agree straight away to work. If you have been subjected to heavy handed sales resulting in undue pressure or unfair pricing, then do report them to Trading Standards.

 If you have any experiences with this kind of scammer, do let me know, by email.

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