For more details, refer to www.fightbackonline.org/index.php/guidance/12-explanations/23-the-ten-most-common-scams
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| Online Shopping and Auction Website Scams | Online auction sites such as eBAY are huge business and there are con artists who pose as buyers. They appear to pay for the goods that you then send to them. However, the payment bounces and you cannot get your goods back. There are also sellers who take your money but don’t send the goods or claim to have sent them but they never get to you. |
| Lottery Scams | This can be for the UK lottery or Euromilions or any other lottery around the world. If you didn’t buy a ticket then you cannot have won. |
| Premium Rate Telephone Number Scam | You receive a letter or email or text message or automated voicemail telling you that you have won a large prize and all you need to do to claim it is call a phone number. This turns out to be a premium rate number costing you up to £4 per minute. Over a million people a year fall victim to this, according to the Office of Fair Trading. |
| Identity Theft | Identity theft occurs when someone assumes your identity to perform a fraud or other criminal act. Criminals can get the information they need to assume your identity from a variety of sources, including by stealing your wallet, rifling through your trash, or by compromising your credit or bank information. |
| Phishing Scams | People pretend to work for a trustworthy organisation as a way to get you to divulge identity information and/or financial information such as credit card details or bank accounts. |
| Nigerian 419 Scams | Also known as the Advance Fee scam. This is a scam where you are promised a large sum of money in return for a small advance fee. But the large sum is from a dubious source and will share it with you in return for that advance fee. |
| Dating Scam | Scammers take advantage of people looking for romantic partners, via dating websites, apps or social media by pretending to be prospective romantic partners. |
| Holiday Scam | This can be a holiday or flight or holiday accommodation that you pay for but then find doesn’t exist. Or it could be a genuine holiday but with a ‘catch’ that you wish you’d never accepted. |
| Cold Caller Scams | The scammer will convince the victim to buy goods or services but once they’ve got the credit card details and identity information – they can then make unauthorised purchases or sell the information to other scammers. |
| Fake Loan Scam | This can be a free phone number or you apply online. You are told that your loan is agreed but you need to pay insurance costs via a money transfer. Once you’ve paid the fee, you never hear from the company again. |
| Investment Related Scams | Ponzi schemes are where people get paid from money coming in from new members but there is no investment and it all collapses as there cannot continue to be enough new members to existing members.
Market manipulation is where the scammers find ways to artificially push up the value of a stock then sell at the top price and everyone else loses. |
