Fraudsters are continually coming up with new ways to con unsuspecting



people into parting with their money, and with the internet, email and

mobile phones it's becoming easier and easier for them. Here are some

examples of types of scams you might come across and tips on how to

protect yourself from being scammed.

Home working opportunities

Advertisements offering opportunities to work on your own from home can

be incredibly enticing ? ?no experience required?, ?no selling

involved?, ?no investment or overheads?, ?huge earnings potential?.

Being your own boss and working flexibly is something that many people

dream of doing, so it can be easy to get sucked into joining up.

Typically, you're asked to pay a fee up front for administration,

expenses and materials, or perhaps even just for more information. This

is when alarm bells should start to ring. Legitimate employers would

not ask you to part with money like this. After sending the fee, either

you never hear from the company again, or you receive work only to have

it rejected at your own cost when you send it back for inspection.

Common examples of types of work advertised in these scams are stuffing

envelopes, making cards or sewing clothes or fabrics.

African bank transfers

Most often received by email, these scams purport to be from government

officials or high-ranking people in an African country who need to

transfer money from the country, which they claim can only be done

using a foreign bank account. They often flatter your vanity by

claiming you have been specially chosen for your reliability,

trustworthiness, discretion and competence in financial affairs. They

explain that they will use your bank account to transfer a large sum of

money, of which you will receive a significant proportion as a fee. Of

course, after you hand over your bank account details you never hear

from them again and discover that your account has been emptied.

Prize draw winnings or foreign lottery jackpots

In these telemarketing scams, you'll receive a phone call or a letter

informing you that you've won a prize in a draw or foreign lottery, and

that all you need to do to claim it is to pay an administration fee or

phone a premium rate number, which leaves you hanging on for several

minutes as your phone bill mounts. If you receive such correspondence,

stop and think about it ? did you enter a prize draw or buy a lottery

ticket? You can't win anything in a competition unless you entered it

in the first place so if it's unsolicited, be suspicious.

Phishing

Phishing is the term for fraudulent emails appearing to be from

legitimate companies which request bank account or customer account

details. You're asked to reply to the email with your full details as a

security check, or to update company records, or for you to remain

registered. Legitimate companies will never ask you to give out any

personal details ? including user names and passwords ? by email, so

you should never part with such information.

Pyramid schemes

Marketed as money-making or investment clubs, these scams claim to be

able to make you large sums of money in a short period of time simply

by paying a fee to join them and by recruiting others to join too. They

are based on the premise that the more people who join, the higher

members climb up the pyramid and the more money will be made to be

distributed among members. However, they can never work as they require

a continual flow of new members, which can never be sustained. A

similar scam is the chain gift letter/email, in which it is claimed you

will make large sums of money simply by giving a sum of money to one or

more persons on the list before adding your own name and forwarding the

letter/email. Any type of plan that claims to make people money solely

from the recruitment fees of other members is at best unsupportable and

at worst fraudulent.

Warning signs

If any of the following apply, then you should question the legitimacy

of the offer or deal:

The offer was unsolicited.

The company is based abroad.

You have to pay a fee to claim a prize.

You are asked to hand over your bank account details or other

personal information.

It seems too good to be true.

You have to phone a premium rate number.

The correspondence address is a PO box.

The correspondence you receive is full of spelling mistakes

and/or grammatical errors and looks unprofessional. (However, don't be misled

into thinking that if something looks professional, it is legitimate.)

Tips to help you avoid being scammed

It helps to know who you are dealing with. Get names and company

details and do your own personal research to check whether the deal or

company is legitimate.

Find out if it's a genuine company by checking whether it is

registered at Companies House.

If the company is legally required to be registered with a

certain body, such as the Financial Services Authority,

check whether the body holds records of the company's registration.

Bodies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Consumer Direct, the

Office of Fair Trading or your local trading standards agency can often

be good sources of information on scams and frauds.

Don't be afraid to ask for information to be repeated or

explained in more detail, and ask as many questions as you need to.

Don't allow yourself to be bullied by hard-sell tactics. Never

commit to anything on the spot.

Take time to make your decision and always read the small print

of the terms and conditions. Seek professional or legal advice if

necessary.

Keep all relevant documentation.

Apply a healthy scepticism to anything that doesn't seem quite

right!