ISIS Calling - Beware of phone scams!

Who is actually calling you? -

Terrorists are using telesales to steal your money!

Many of us have caller ID on our phones these days, but is that as safe as it could be?

Sadly, not.

I've helped a number of people in the past who could have fallen prey to scammers, but thankfully I have been able to investigate on their behalf and save them from becoming victims.

Email is another way of scamming -

as is the 'your computer has a virus' scam

The nature of scam contact has grown, from the old style 'you have won the lottery' crap letter received in the post, onwards.

With many legitimate email addresses stolen by disgruntled employees and sold on, or hacked from sites by criminals, there is often little that can be done except to consign these spam emails to your spam folder and hope that the senders are well and truly identified by your email provider.

No, but you can stop them! 

Going back to the phone angle, some callers are now using 'VOIP hacking' to make what are on the face of it legitimate UK number calls.

This was the preserve of companies farting above their own arses, the fur coat no knicker brigade, who in the past bought 'exclusive' area code phone numbers, often for Mayfair, London addresses, with which to impress if you started snooping on them. The reality is that these people are far from what they make out to be.

Often these sorts of people, were based in less salubrious areas of the UK, in actual fact.

The recent 'your computer' is affected scam calls are the latest way to infiltrate your computer and cause you problems. The MO is that someone calls you and tells you that your computer has been infected with a virus.

Usually, this is from someone with a foreign accented voice, often making out they are from British Telecom. They are not and BT does not make these types of calls.

Plus, the caller ID doesn't show. ISIS are now using this model to call people in the UK in an attempt to extract money for their cause, so be warned.

Report suspicious activities to the Action Fraud hot-line

Let the Police do some 'cold calling' n the UK scammers for you

Many of us no doubt still receive emails from our 'new best friend in Burkino Faso' promising untold wealth if you pay an administration fee and give them your bank details to do so, if you do that they can then empty your bank account for you.

Be vigilant. There are shysters and scammers out there. Don't be their next victim!

Beware of the Binary trading scams

Voting on Brexit trades is another current opportunity

Binary trading is not new, but beware that there are some corrupt companies out there looking to lure unsuspecting punters.

I investigated one company for a friend who had become involved.

Binary trading is betting on the outcome of a deal where you might win because of a currency fluctuation going your way. Like all gambling there is no guarantee of a win.

If you are in any doubt about an investment opportunity, in the first instance, do a cursory Google search on the company before you enter into any dialogue with them. See if there any forums where the company is complained about and add your own comments if you need to, especially about how they approached you.

So this company I looked at was based in the Caribbean, also it had no UK financial services accreditation and they wanted my friend to provide bank card details, utility bill and driving licence copies by email. I immediately did my  research on this company when I found this out.

I found that this company was about as bent as a dog's back leg. So I advised my contact to cancel his bank card. I also advised him to contact the City of London Police action fraud line to report the matter.

I told my client to say to this company if they called again that they must not try and take any money off him, citing the 7 day cooling off clause in UK law.  

It transpired however, that various attempts were made to take amounts totalling £14,000 from my contact. They were not successful. I did read that one person had been well and truly cleaned out and had lost £4k.

I told my client not to send the documents and the Police action fraud line also told him not to do so.

They rang my client when I was with him and I took the call, I told them that under UK contract law that the client had 7 days to change their mind.

They insisted on the document copies being sent so they could 'process' the cancellation, I told them they would under no circumstances get these and to not attempt to take any money because the Police were now involved, which held no ground for them as they made about 3 further attempts after this instruction.

With the documents and the bank details, the company could have sold these onto criminal gangs to exploit.

Whilst there are genuine companies out there, do your research.