The Secret Sister Scam

Gift exchanges are common on Facebook and other social media platforms as a way of connecting and brightening up people’s lives. The idea is that a group of people buy each other small gifts and these gift exchanges are most common in the run-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But, scammers create their own fake Gift Exchanges and ones that target women are generally known as  “Secret Sister”.

The scam works by getting people to post the Secret Sister on Facebook and this can be done innocently by women not realising they are part of a scam or can be done directly by scammers using stolen identities.

The proposition is something like ‘Ask your friends to get involved. You send out one gift to the name at the top of the list and in return you will get between 6 and 36 return gifts anonymously”.

You can see this is a simple pyramid scheme.

The person at the top gets free gifts from those below then those below have to recruit more members who will send them gifts and so on.

As is usual with these schemes, a small number win more than they put in and everyone else loses.

It’s a simple proposition that has been used by criminals for hundreds of years in various forms.

The offer is that you join and send one gift to a person at the top of some list then delete that name and add your name at the bottom of the list, then recruit 6 more people to also go on the list.

When your name reaches the top of the list you will be inundated with gifts, in theory!

However, it is very obvious that for each winner there must be a lot of people who get nothing as adding six times as many people to a list constantly means even the entire population of the planet would soon run out. These schemes usually collapse after some dozens of people have won and they typically leave many thousands out of pocket.

There are plenty of legitimate gift exchanges on Facebook and other online communities – ones in which you get tied to particular people who you know, and where you promise to send just one gift to each other – and your time and money is much better spent on those.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Stupidest Spam of the Week Okinawan Tonic

Another email with a magical weight loss method that takes no effort.

This one claims to have been leaked by a doctor and was kept secret by the people of Okinawa who are very long lived.  Supposedly they have a pink tonic that melts belly fat like butter in a frying pan.

It is claimed to be so powerful that it activates a very rare hormone that eats fat.

Now, it is true that the people of Okinawa are very long lived and have extremely low levels of obesity.

But the reasons behind this are well known – certainly no magical drinks.

A large part of the effect is genetic as Okinawans who move away from the island are still long lived.

The rest is environmental factors – their diet is fruit and vegetables – they eat more sweet potato than rice unlike most of the rest of Japan. Most work in agriculture or fishing – good healthy outdoor activities.

The traditional Okinawan diet is dense in the essential vitamins and minerals – including anti-oxidants – but also low in calories.

No magic drinks – just a healthy diet, lots of exercise and good genes.

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Surrey Use The Banking Protocol

Surrey Police and local industries stop £2 million of fraud by using the Banking Protocol scheme.

Surrey Police worked with branch staff at local banks, building societies and Post Offices to stop £740,000 worth of fraud through the Banking Protocol rapid scam response in 2020.

Launched in 2016, the Banking Protocol is a UK-wide scheme, developed in partnership between UK Finance, local police forces and National Trading Standards. The protocol oversaw the training of branch staff to spot the warning signs that suggest a customer may be falling victim to a scam, before alerting their local police force to intervene and investigate the suspected fraud.

In 2020, the Banking Protocol was invoked 164 times in Surrey and there have been 20 arrests in the county and £2 million saved since the protocol began.

The banking industry is working with law enforcement to build on this success and expand the scheme to telephone and online banking. These proposals would deliver a police response to the homes of vulnerable victims who have attempted to make a payment via online or telephone banking that has been flagged as potentially being part of a scam.

Customers would first be asked by the bank to visit their local branch to complete the transaction, enabling branch staff to carry out additional checks and use the Banking Protocol if necessary. If the customer is unable to visit their bank branch, for example if they are vulnerable or have a disability, staff would be able to directly alert the local police who will make a visit to the customer’s home and assess whether they have fallen victim to a scam.

An Example from The Police

This is what happened to a 47-year-old man in Surrey recently:

The man was approached by two men on his doorstep offering to clear his gutters. The man declined this service and the men left.

The following day, the man was approached by the same two men from the day before, claiming they had cleared his gutters and required payment of £2,000. The victim offered to pay by cheque but they refused and demanded cash.

The man visited his bank branch to withdraw £2,000 in cash. Bank staff were concerned that a scam may be taking place, so refused the withdrawal and called police, evoking the Banking Protocol.

A police officer attended the branch and spoke with the man, confirming he had been the victim of a scam. Thankfully, the bank’s actions meant that no money was lost and the victim received the appropriate safeguarding.

Well done the Police and the banks.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Very Dodgy Business Loans

The big banks and lenders give business loans but there are also a lot of small operations that claim to offer business loans and sometimes how they operate seems very dodgy.

A recent email from social-credit.co.uk tells us that says we are eligible for funding options.

“We help you gain access to rates as low as 4.9% for Unsecured loans and 2% for Secured Loans (indicative).”

“Gain access to funds in 24 hours”.

There is a website social-credit.co.uk which isn’t about loans but about getting your ‘social credit report’ on a subscription basis.

There used to be a UK company called Social Credit Report but it was opened and closed by Jason Jamie Roberts in 2016.

He is currently a director of multiple other companies.

The bottom of the email says Copyright loans2grow.co.uk so you might assume that is the actual lending company.

Loans2Grow is not a UK registered company.

There is a website loans2grow.co.uk which lists the name Intatrade Data Network Limited at the bottom of the home page.

This is not a UK registered company name.

At this point I gave up on trying to find a genuine company name – but I would certainly not want to have any financial dealings with a business that seems to hide behind aliases.

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Synthetic Identity Fraud

Until recently, identity theft involved the criminal getting enough of your personal details to be able to pretend to be you and open accounts in your name, take out loans, credit cards etc.

Now, we have synthetic identity theft, which is where the criminal combines real and fake information to create a new identity. These fake identities are then used to open accounts, make purchases etc. but also apply for unemployment benefit, duplicate accounts etc.

These criminals steal identity information e.g. social security number, passport number, identification cards etc. and couple that with false information such as names, addresses, birth dates etc.

They now have a whole series of synthetic identities to use for criminal purposes.

People who commit synthetic identity fraud may use these fake identities straight away or keep them for weeks or months and build up a track record in each of lawful usage. This makes it easier to use them at a later stage without drawing attention to their lack of transactions and credit history.

It can be difficult for the financial institutions to recognise this as fraud as there may not be any victims e.g. if for example, a criminal uses a stolen social security number but fake name and address.

Synthetic identities are often used by organized crime rings, which set up many such accounts to use for money laundering and dispersion of money to members.

For people caught out in this fraud, it can be difficult to make sense of.

Imagine you contact your bank about your personal account and they ask you which one. It appears you have two personal accounts in your name but with different addresses and other details.

This has happened.

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