Thanks for the feedback about the telephone scam, it’s nice to be able to stop something horrible happening to people. One thing to note with many scams is that, like magic tricks, they usually have something to distract you from what is really happening.
In the scam I talked about last week (click here if you missed it) the distraction is taking you through an automated call system, by asking a number of seemingly random questions and getting you to respond via your telephone, you don’t realise that you are actually transferring your call to a premium rate number.
The chance of a prize may appear to be a distraction, and it might be one as well, but the main aim of the ‘prize’ is to motivate you to call.
More obvious distractions are the insane amounts of money promised by the ‘Nigerian Oil’ scamsters where you are asked to provide a little bit of money, to help release millions of pounds of cash in return. I’ve heard of Al Qaida Gold version of the same scam as well. Personally I think these are very obvious and am always surprised when people fall for them. But some of the scams that have been around for years are harder to spot, and make good use of the distraction element.
One of the scams is always based around an investment, the version I first heard about was used by diamond sellers, but it could be shares or rare wines, anything that involves buying something with the aim of making money from it
It starts with a scamster persuading you to invest in a diamond, for say, £1,000. A short-time later you get a call, saying that great news your diamond is now worth £1,100. That’s a 10% return in just a couple of weeks, and would you like to take advantage of another diamond they have available, this is a bargain at £1,200.
The idea is that you feel so happy with making £100 in such a short-time; you will not only re-invest your original £1,000 but have added another £100 to the pot. This continues, with the amount of extra money they ask you to invest in the next opportunity going up and up, until you ask to sell and take your profits. You are politely told this is no problem; there may be some delay until they can execute the sale, but you are assured you will have your money very soon.
Of course, you never see the cash, your enquiries are met with more and more excuses until one day, there is no answer at the other end. It’s got too hot for the scamsters, too many people are chasing their money and it’s time to clear out.
The distraction in this case is the supposed profit you have made, this stops you realising that you are been asked for more and more money each time. The scamsters might even send you ‘certificates’ of ownership, anything to make the investment seem more real.
I hope that you aren’t ever caught out by scamsters but I’ll keep an ear out for more scams that are making the rounds and go back over some of the more realistic ones that I’ve heard of over the coming weeks.
On to this week’s competitions now and I’ve found three crackers, all close in the next week, so make sure you don’t miss out and get your entries in now.
Win a break for four people in Cornwall - Closes 7th May                                        Â
Win a pair of tickets for the BAFTA awards - Closes 6th May
www.athomemagazine.co.uk/competitions/
Le Creuset Pans and an Amazon voucher - Closes 7th May
That’s it for today, good luck and keep the winning stories coming in.Â
Dave – Just Comps
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