The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has just published an excellent free guide entitled 'Scambusters - Your guide to beating the scammers'.
The global 'scam' industry collectively makes billions of pounds worth of profits for the crooks and covers such sectors as -
- Fake lotteries
- Offshore share scams (the cold callers)
- Pyramid selling schemes
- Pyramid investing schemes
- Work from home opportunities
- Online dating (your 'date' will ask for money to come visit you etc)
- Miracle health cures
- Identity theft
- Nigerian 401 scams (letters from people wanting to deposit £25million is your account, you get 10% etc)
Who Falls For These Scams
People from all walks of life.
One would expect the less educated are more at risk but no, studies have shown that executives and other professionals such as Doctors are the number one source of profits for the offshore share scammers. These are the thieves that cold call with 'unbelievable' tips on hot technology firms. Another tactic is to sell futures or options on financial products that are riding high and in the news, such as Gold or Crude Oil.
It's not hard to understand why may people fall for the scammers tricks because many of the scams are sophisticated and they all play on the natural greed that lurks within all of us
Summary
The scambuster guide is free to download in PDF format (see below) or you can order a copy by calling 0800 389 3159. It's a good read and well worth getting hold of a copy if only to give to a friend or family member.
Good luck on staying scam-free and never do business with offers that seem too good to be true.
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