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There will always be people trying to profit off the back of would-be investors, so to help make sure you don't fall foul of their scams we've listed 5 tricks currently being played on unsuspecting businesses…
Companies House ID Fraud
There has recently been a spate of identity fraud being committed through Companies House, the official registry of corporate information. This type of crime is impossible to prevent and so far the perpetrators have employed this scheme to swindle hundreds of thousands of pounds from global companies. This makes it more important than ever for registered businesses to keep a close eye on the validity of information recorded with the agency and to report unauthorised changes immediately.
Firstly criminals fraudulently inform Companies House that a business, such as yours, has changed its address and once the changes have been made to your official documents they apply for fuel charge cards for the fake premises. They can then fill up from the allocated petrol stations across the country at your company’s expense. This is often done at night under cover of darkness so it’s much harder to read the number plates on the forecourt CCTV tapes.
Police in Leicestershire and Cheshire are working towards catching the gang, so far without success, and Companies House have admitted they are powerless to stop the scam, saying 'We act primarily as a registry of company information. We must accept all documents sent to us in good faith. We do not have any powers to verify or validate the information - including signatures.'
Yellow Pages Scam
A unlawful advertising scheme has recently been highlighted by The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) after it received complaints from its members.
Southend was the first place to be targeted, although it’s predicted that the ruse will eventually be rolled out across the country in an attempt to catch out other business people - including property investors, builders and landlords.
Mailshots are sent out by a so-called 'marketing business' titled 'Yellow Pages World Family', which include the recognisable 'walking fingers' logo, advising recipients that they can be listed in the 'Interactive Internet Business Directory' for £147. Those taking part might mistakenly believe the request is in fact a demand for existing directory entries.
Yellowpagesworldfamily.com is actually registered to someone in Serbia and is linked to a service provider in Macedonia, so you’ve probably guessed (correctly) that Southend Trading Standards have declared these people and the services offered to be completely unconnected with the familiar Yellow Pages directory and its associated website Yell.com.
Florida Investment Fix
The NAEA has warned agents and investors about their concerns regarding a new development being promoted in the UK called Elliott's Landing in Orlando, Florida, saying 'We have been advised of numerous complaints with the builder/developer of Elliott's Landing in Orlando, Florida. UK estate agents and their customers are well advised to be extremely careful in any dealings with this particular project and its builders/developers, who are active in other projects besides this in other areas of Florida.'
Many new large-scale developments are being heavily marketed to UK investors due to the current favourable exchange rate and as value for money is a great benefit in any deal investors are sometimes seen as easy targets.
The NAEA are advising investors to remember ‘location, location, location’ when considering property deals in Florida and not to get sucked in by clever advertising, which at the end of the day is no substitute for local knowledge.
High Yield Investment Scams
London’s SCD6 Economic and Specialist Crime Unit is working with agencies in the USA and UK on a joint initiative against a scam known as High Yield Investment fraud, Prime Bank fraud and Advanced Fee fraud.
The common theme is that investor victims are parted from their money with nothing or very little to show for it.
There are countless different schemes around, makes it impossible to describe how each one works and the only boundaries are the extent of the fraudsters’ imagination. Examples include:
- Banks in remote areas of the world offering Bank Guarantees for hundreds of millions of dollars
- US Federal Reserve Notes supposedly recovered from a World War Two plane crash site in the Philippines
- Historical US Railway Bonds
- Pre-World War 2 Hitler's Gold Bearer Shares recovered from a lake in Austria
And so it goes on, with some of the invitations sounding so ridiculous, they almost seem plausible. The SCD6 has warned investors that such schemes are increasingly more common and being promoted through a range of methods, including mail and email (sometimes personalised) and cold-calls via the telephone.
If you’re offered any investment scheme that promotes or guarantees high investment returns, particularly higher returns than could ordinarily be obtained through traditional high street sources you should apply the 'scam exam'. This is a simple, effective test that can be found on the Metropolitan Police website at www.met.police.uk
Quite often schemes of this nature are created and organised by foreigners, trying to apply different languages to their marketing material so the same scams can run at the same time throughout the world. However, because of they often aren’t fluent in English you’ll find the same words and phrases cropping-up in their promotional literature.
The Met Police have collated these words and phrases into a single list, so if you’re suspicious about a particular scheme take a look at the list. If several of these expressions are included in any document this should be seen as a red-flag warning.
If you receive such a document it’s advised that you restrain from parting with personal or financial information and under no circumstances send money. Instead call the police, Trading Standards or the Office of Fair Trading straight away and ensure they can verify details of the promotion before you proceed further. |
