Watch out, it’s prime time for mugging savers’ money
IT IS a sad fact that conmen and fraudsters continue to proliferate, looking to rob us of our hard earned money at every opportunity. Whatever we do to thwart them, they persist like a very bad New Year hangover and will sadly be a big feature of this year’s personal finance landscape. Be warned, financial fraud thrives in 21st Century Britain. You could well become a victim unless you have your wits about you.
Of course the increasing importance of the internet, mobile phone and text messaging has given these despicable fraudsters an unstoppable impetus. It has enabled them to bombard us with information in the hope of ensnaring the unaware. Like flytraps, they succeed all too often, depleting our bank accounts and emptying our pension pots.
No one, however financially smart they think they are, is spared attack from these criminals. In the past year, I have had someone clone my debit card while I was carefully using a NatWest machine. Thankfully, my bank’s fraud department immediately queried the subsequent withdrawals and refunded me straightaway.
I also had someone try to open a bank account in my name at Clydesdale Bank. Fortunately, a credit reference agency spotted the potential fraud promptly. I dread to think what the fraudsters would have gone on to do. There is more. For the past couple of years, I have been targeted persistently by claims management companies looking to help me progress a motor accident insurance claim. The fact that I have not had a car accident in many a year does not dissuade them.
In addition, I get the occasional call or text from companies promising to make me rich on the back of making a payment protection insurance claim. I ignore them or politely tell them that I have never bought such a useless insurance policy. Of course these claims companies are not all fraudsters, but their behaviour is at best borderline and not in the best interests of consumers.
If I were to predict what financial scams will proliferate – or emerge – this year, pensions will be close to the top of the pile. As long as pension freedom persists, fraudsters will look at ways of getting hold of our money. According to the Department for Work and Pensions, January is a prime month for assaults on retirement savings. In January last year, a record £2.3 billion was scammed – double the figure of the previous three months combined. So, to avoid getting caught by these invidious villains, please hang up on any cold caller promising to unlock your pension. Pension cold calling – as well as related texts and emails – was meant to be banned by the Government but it has yet to act on this promise. So the calls are still being made and honest people robbed in the process.
If you think you have been scammed, contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. For tips on how to protect your retirement savings, visit website pensionsscams.com. Apart from pension scamming and bank fraud (see page 101), I am sure that this year will see many people drawn into Bitcoin mania (and subsequent misery). Indeed, offers to join the Bitcoin cavalry currently dominate my junk emails – alongside cures for ageing and horoscope readings that are so good (I am told) they will give me ‘goosebumps’.
‘Wow! Open IMMIDIATELY’, reads the latest email I have received on this cryptocurrency (spelling mistake and capitals all theirs). ‘Congratulations-Bitcoin,’ it continues. ‘Jeff.Prestridge, we just tried to reach you. Bitcoin is making people rich and you can become the next millionaire.’
This offer is nothing but junk. If you receive one, I trust you will follow my lead and press ‘delete’.
So, here’s wishing you a successful battle against the financial scammers in 2018. May your finances, not theirs, prosper.
If someone has tried to wreck your financial life, do get in touch. We would be delighted to tell your story in our pages – and expose their dastardly ways.