标签归档:telephone scam

UK public service warning: cold callers offer fake IKEA shares

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The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has been informed recently of a supposed investment scam aiming at potential investors. The alleged victims are told that IKEA, the world recognised swedish company known for their modern architectural designs of both appliances and furnitures, are due to float shares on the stock market and therefore potential investors should purchase IPO shares (Initial Public Offering) before the floatation.

In response, actionfraud and Ikea have themselves issued an article stating that this is false and there are no arrangements for Ikea to become publicly listed.

This described fraud comes under the umbrella of what is called ‘Boiler room Fraud.’ This is when you receive contact from someone offering investment opportunities which often leads the caller requesting a ‘seal the deal’ payment by requesting bank account details over the phone. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) report approximately 5000 people a year contact them on suspicion that they have been subjected to investment fraud. Unfortunately, around 10% would have already issued funds to the criminals. In addition, the FCA warns that out of these victims who would have transferred money to the criminals, the probability that they will be contacted in the future by the the same operation or have their details sold to other fraudsters would be increased.

Have you received a call of this exact scenario or of a similar nature? We would like to hear from you. Let us know by commenting below OR by searching the phone number on tellows that was used to phone you and leave a comment there to assist others in their enquiry to a suspicious phone call!

We used www.financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com:

Floatation: Floating shares are shares of a public cooperation that are available for trading in the stock market
Initial Public Offering (IPO): The first price for which a company offers to sell stock in itself when it moves from private ownership to public trade.

We also acknowledge actionfraud.police.uk for their content published on the 13th of June: Beware of cold callers offering fraudulent sales of shares in IKEA.

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01614510965: Nuisance calls increase due to leaked Barclay’s customer data?

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A whistleblower handed the Mail a memory stick containing thousands of Barclay’s customer files, which is allegedly just a sample of a wider database containing information on 27,000 customers.

The file includes sensitive information about customer’s earnings, savings, mortgages, health issues and insurance policies. These files were compromised and sold to boiler room scammers for up to £50 per file. The stolen data may be as detailed as providing information about each customer’s occupation, health, marital status, and even their investment habits.

These information may then be used by scammers in understanding the investment attitude of customers and use this for fraudulent activities like the sale of carbon credits, diamond, rare earth metals and different kinds of commodity scam. As explained by the whistleblower, the Barclay file is:

pure gold to brokers (who must have made a fortune out of it) because it gave them a psychological edge over potential investors – their victims. Because of its detail it allowed the brokers to get inside the minds of their targets. They knew exactly how much money these people were prepared to invest and their attitude to risk.

These fraudsters who act as „loaders“ or brokers can earn up to 40 percent a deal as investment sale commission. Contracts that may seem legal and valid would even include an „exit clause“ – the date when the ROI is expected. But before this happens, the fly-by-night scammer closes shop and disappears, only to open another one after a while.

tellows UK also received a number of complaints in relation with this scam. 01614510965 was cited as harrasment call by user Annoyed:

Said they were Barclays but would’t give any information until I gave my details to this random person at this random number. Ridiculous obviously declined and asked them to write instead they haven’t, not suprised. Do not hand your details over the phone ask them to write to you and remove your contact number from their system.

RJG also reported the number 08000852652:

Scam! Contacted Barclays and it is not one of their numbers. Been passed on to the Fraud Department

Initial investigations by Barclays suggest that the massive theft of data may be linked to its former Barclays financial planning business which ceased operating in 2011 and said the leaked data originated from 2008 or earlier.

Barclay may face charges for failing to protect customer data. The case is being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office, the police and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Sources:
www.theguardian.com

www.redd-monitor.org

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A Call for Reform: Empower Regulators to Fine More Companies as Nuisance Callers

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Three years since UK’s Information Communication Office has been given the power to impose a fine of up to £500,000, only two firms have been prosecuted so far. This is the situation despite the staggering increase in the number of complaints received between April and October last year, totalling to 100,000 – a far cry from the 30,000 reports in 2012.

One of these companies is First Financial, which was fined £175,000 after sending millions of spam texts to promote its website using unregistered sim cards.

继续阅读

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Regulator Knocks Gumtree Tricksters Off Their Perch

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This week brought fantastic news for victims of telephone fraud as regulator PhonepayPlus confronted huge offender RS Premium with a whopping great fine and a ban on operating premium rate numbers.

The scam, a relatively unoriginal ‘call-us-back-and-we’ll-keep-you-on-rather-pricy-hold’ manoeuvre, targeted househunters and jobseekers – indeed, the vulnerability of the victims was part of the reason that PhonepayPlus came down so hard upon the perpetrators. Adverts and emails containing details of non-existent vacancies or properties lured eager and unsuspecting individuals into calling these 070 numbers back and waiting patiently on premium-rate hold whilst their phone bills rocketed into hyperspace.

It’s hard to track down exactly which calls are part of a certain scam as so many different numbers are used by the ‘artists’ to carry out their schemes and help them blend into a haze of anonymity. However, there are plenty of you reporting remarkably similar-sounding scams on tellows, all with scores of 7 or above. Have a gander…

‘Amy Pearce’ has been tirelessly sending emails offering jobs at the fictitious ‘SB Millers’ and may ask you to call back on 07030808243. Hannahayleigh wasn’t going to be caught out in a hurry:

Received a message saying I’d got through some kind of recruitment screening process and offering me a job. Deleted it straight away as I haven’t been on the job market for several years! Googled the agency and surprise surprise, it seems to be a fake. These people are a waste of space.

User GiGi also had her wits about her when asked to call 07030808244 back:

I got an email from this person, recruiting me for her company. I called them against my better judgement and was kept waiting on the phone for at least 7 minutes. If nothing else, that’s simply rude and I also realised that I had to pay for every minute…In the end they didn’t have any jobs to offer. I examined the email more closely and discovered that it didn’t look really professional, like with a signature and everything.

…and ‘Scammer finder’ simply cuts to the chase with some stern words of warning:

DO NOT PHONE AND WARN YOUR MATES AND WHOEVER ELSE. YOU’LL GET RIPPED OFF!!!

07030808245 and 07030808246 (are you spotting a trend here) are also used by the infamous ‘Miss Pearce’.

Similar scams frequently pop up on tellows and seem to be an ongoing problem; see this example, 07053500874, reported by Jskr late in 2012:

Received email from Tony Render offering interview with the department manager, Edie Wilson and told to contact this number. Checked on line to find it is a cost scam resulting in large bills. Do not reply!

070 numbers have been in question for a long while, as their closeness in appearance to mobile numbers renders them prime fraud-fodder and they unfortunately seem to proliferate on Gumtree; see this warning about 07053528945 from user, er, ‘Warning’:

its a rent SCAM to get you to call premium numbers. you call a normal mobile no and he tells you to call his girlfriend, then says you got the number wrong, bla bla bla. SCAM

RS Premium were charged ₤120,000 for their misconduct and it seems that Ofcom may be reevaluating their decision re: 070 numbers.

Phone owners: 1, Scammers: 0. There is hope, boys and girls.

Unfortunately, the wonderfully useful website Gumtree does seem to attract the occasional scammer amongst the bona fide individuals and organisations that advertise there. Just keep your eyes open for 070 numbers and try not to give personal details away until you’ve established a reasonable level of trust. The website itself offers some solid advice about how to protect yourself against potential fraudsters.

Keep reporting any dodgy dealings on tellows and do your fellow users a favour!

Stay savvy,
Your tellows team

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