The five most common scams

Rosalind Kent reveals five types of scam you need to watch out for...

Being on your guard against a scam has become part of everyday life for most of us. In fact, if you haven’t received a plethora of dubious job offers, bogus banking emails, or excitable texts about winning a luxury cruise, then you might be feeling a little left out!

Scam #1: Postal scams

If you are not technologically minded, and can’t bear mobile phones, there are still plenty of old-fashioned postal scams out there. Data shows that the majority of postal scam victims are vulnerable or elderly people, so look out for elderly friends or relatives.

Classic scams involve victims being told they have won a prize or foreign lottery and just have to send an admin fee in order to receive their cheque. Inevitably, the prize never materialises.

There are many other postal scams around, as the recent prosecution of a company called Parcel Delivery Services illustrates. The company was fined £10,000 after giving customers ‘missed delivery’ cards telling them to call to arrange delivery. The cards were found to be misleading and did not contain sufficient pricing information. The company has been ordered to stop operating, and pay compensation for all valid claims.

Scam # 2: Email scams

I’ve lost count of the number of emails I’ve received from foreign aristocrats requesting my help with a complex money transfer. No matter how ridiculous you might find your latest request for help from the Nigerian President, many people still fall for these scams, so keeping up awareness is important.

Be warned: if you reply then your contact details may be sold to other criminals, opening you up to even more persistent targeting.

Bogus messages from you bank requesting an update of your contact or login details (‘phishing’) are as popular as ever. Look out for variants; new scams emerge every day.

Currently, an email purporting to be from BT is doing the rounds. Customers are told to follow a link in order to update their account information. BT advise customers not to respond, nor click on links or attachments, and to contact them if you are concerned.

Find out how to protect yourself from phishing in Eight ways to spot a phishing scam.

Scam #3: Internet scams

Big events are often the catalyst for new scams, and with the 2012 Olympics on the horizon, Olympic-themed internet scams are already rife. Fake tickets to events are being sold on bogus ‘Olympic’ websites. UK domains can be purchased by anyone, and websites can be easily built to make the seller look like a bona fide Olympic ticket retailer.

The attack is two-fold as not only will you lose money, you will be are handing your card details over to criminals. Take a look at my previous article, ‘4 major rip-offs you can fight back against’, for some advice on how to protect yourself.

Scam #4 Text message scams.

Pretty much everyone has a mobile phone these days, and inevitably they have become useful tools for scammers. Text cons are increasingly targeting children, so keep an eye on your kids!

Texts promise a high value prize and give a premium rate number for recipients to call to claim their prize. The ensuing call is then lengthy and the prizes non-existent.  A text scam recently detected involved victims being told they had won a Sony Widescreen TV or a ‘mystery musical gift’. The premium rate number costs £1.50 per minute and all callers were automatically given the ‘mystery gift’ of a basic mobile phone ringtone. This ‘company’ was fined £2,000 for misleading advertising.

Another variant of the text scam is ‘reverse texting’. You are asked if you want to enter a competition, but if you say ‘yes’ you end up paying for texts received. Expect a large number of texts to start arriving, costing up to £1.50 a pop!

If you have received any of these texts, report them to Phonepayplus.

Scam #5: Telephone scams

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If you don’t have a mobile, don’t think you are safe. You can just as easily be targeted on your landline.

A scam currently doing the rounds involves scammers saying they are from the council and asking for your bank details so they can refund overpaid council tax. Never give your details over the phone. Hang up and call the council yourself to see. If you are due a refund, they will have all your details anyway.  

A preventative measure you can take is to register your phone numbers with the Telephone Preference Service, although it’s interesting to note that they currently have a warning on their website about a scam involving themselves! Customers are being called and asked for payment to complete their registration. But you should note that the service is free, and you will never be asked for payment by the real company.

Those scammers, they really do get everywhere!

For further information about scams read Your rights if you've been scammed.

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