Category: Warning

A Pre-Paid Funeral Is Not a Good Deal

The Fairer Finance consumer group has published a report into pre-paid funerals and concludes that the Funeral Planning industry is not working well for consumers and millions of pounds of consumer’s money could be at risk.

The average cost of a funeral is now £3,900 so it makes sense for many people to plan ahead to ensure there is the money for a funeral for a loved one or themselves.

Telesales companies have been bombarding people with calls about planning their funeral and an estimated six million people over the age of 50 have been contacted.

James Daley of ‘Fairer Finance’ said “the combination of a fast growing market, fuelled by high pressure sales to a potentially vulnerable customer base is creating a perfect storm. “

“A growing number of customers are likely to be let down when their plan is claimed on – with some funeral plan providers passing on significant extra costs to the families”

The people making the calls are usually commission based and charge up to £1,000 per plan sold so obviously that’s a big chunk of the money gone that was expected to pay for the funeral.

This market is basically unregulated and the report findings will be reviewed by The Treasury, the Competition and Markets Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.

There are reputable companies involved in the funeral planning industry and this can make sense for some people. But do not take up an offer from a cold caller and do your research to find the best plan for your needs and ensure you understand what it includes as it seems that 90% of people taking these plans do not fully understand what they will get.  Contact the relevant company directly – to avoid commission going to an agent.

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Do You Understand Facebook Security

The Internet Resource Centre (www.idtheft.org) carried out a survey to help Facebook users deal with concerns over identity theft.

The key concern from the survey results is that many Facebook users don’t understand the privacy settings and believe their information has more restricted circulation than is actually the case.

63% of respondents believed their information was only visible to friends if their profile was set to private. Not true.

Over 90%  of respondents say they have their full name visible on their profile and more than 50% have their birthday, pets names, hometown, high school name and current city visible. All of this information is very useful to identity thieves.

Most people do not share passwords with others, but 10% say they reuse the same password on other sites. If your password is hacked, then the hackers often try the same login and password on other systems so if you share passwords across systems then you’re putting all of them all at risk from one hack.

Most survey respondents have received scam emails and messages, phishing emails and messages and more than 10% report their account was accessed without their permission. The results were mostly embarrassment and damage to reputation but also loss of money in some cases.

Many victims of identity theft do not realise their identity has been compromised  until some time later e.g. when a bank statement arrives or debt collectors start to phone.  By then a lot of damage could already have been done.

The page at http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/feature/a552990/how-do-i-make-my-facebook-profile-private/ contains detailed information on Facebook privacy settings.

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Social Networking and Identity Theft

Billions of people use social media networks – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and more.

Many people share lots of information about themselves and sometimes that can give fraudsters what they need to scam you, specifically to steal your identity.

Identity theft is where a fraudster acquires confidential information about you – sufficient that she can access your online accounts, take out credit cards or loans in your name, commit crimes and use your name etc.

This can be a devastating experience for some and once your identity has been stolen it’s very difficult to reclaim it without a lot of help.

How Identity Theft Can Happen Through Social Networking

To make full use of social media you need to divulge information about yourself but you should be aware of the following risky activities:-

  • In Settings – choosing privacy to be “low”
  • Accepting invitations to connect from unknown people
  • Downloading free APPS – games etc.
  • Sharing your password
  • Clicking on links that lead you to other websites, even if the link was sent to you by a friend or posted on your friend’s profile
  • Clicking on links in phishing messages or replying to them

E.g. A woman receives a message from one of her friends on social media recommending a cat video for which there is a link. She trusts her friend so clicks on the link, but it doesn’t bring up a video. She didn’t know that her friends profile had been hacked and taken over and the link was to a malicious website. A computer virus has  now downloaded to her computer from that website.

She later finds that emails have gone out in her name to all of her contacts asking them to click on the malicious link.

Be aware and stay safe.

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Fake Online Reviews

[picture – Each child only sees the part s/he is examining – old proverb]

Online reviews of a product or service can be very useful and most people buying online do check out such reviews first.

Surveys suggest that more than half of the adults in Britain, around 25 million people, use online reviews such as on  Amazon, eBAY, Tripadvisor, Foursquare and Checkatrade to provide confidence in the product or service and find the best deals.

We rely on those reviews being honest – by people who have actually used the relevant product or service and giving their honest opinions.

But, some companies cheat – they pay others to create fake reviews  in order to get more business. Sometimes they try to cover up bad reviews by posting lots of fake positive reviews and so on. This distorts the situation and is dishonest. If a company ‘distorts’ online reviews then they are in breach of the Consumer Protection Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The Competition and Markets Authority says that shoppers who use the internet to research hotels, books, electronics and other purchases are being routinely misled by millions of fake reviews orchestrated by companies to trick potential customers.

This problem of distortion is not new. Magazine reviews have always been a little suspect as it is well known that the reviewers are given free products and sometimes trips to great places to review the products. So is their opinion completely unaffected?

Also, the bloggers and vloggers who do product reviews face this problem as their opinions can carry a lot of weight but they are commonly offered free products to test.  Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

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There is further information at

http://www.fightbackonline.org/index.php/guidance/13-warnings/46-the-problem-of-fake-online-reviews

In conclusion,  online reviews can be very helpful but you do have to consider why the author of such reviews wrote them – was there any self interest involved or monetary benefit?

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