Reports of frauds, deceptions and scams keep appearing, weekly even daily, on
major news channels and newspapers. Some of these frauds seem just too big and remote to be of immediate, direct relevance to our daily lives. But, we will eventually pay for the consequences and damages, in taxes, costs of goods and services, regulations, copy-cats etc.

I hope we can collect, in one thread, frauds and scams, reported or heard. We must become more aware and more educated to guard against frauds and scams
which impact upon the health, well being, and wealth of ourselves and our families.

"People who have signed a direct debit instruction thinking they were just claiming a cash prize could get their money back under the Direct Debit Guarantee. An insurance company has been using direct mail letters to market its policy.

But the Hospital Plan Insurance Services letter simply says that the recipient has won a cash prize, and asks them to fill in a claim form.

However, the form is also a direct debit instruction, and by filling it in, people have been signing up for the company's insurance policy, and authorising it to debit the premiums from their bank accounts.
..."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/3447667.stm

"The UK's Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) is to start criminal proceeding in the City Slickers share-dealing scandal involving two former journalists of The Mirror.

The move follows a four-year inquiry by DTI inspectors who examined some 41 personal share trades by the two tipsters, Anil Bhoyrul and James Hipwell, who wrote the paper's City Slickers column."


http://www.thisismoney.com/20040201/nm73712.html

"US Hawaii State securities commissioner warns of top 10 scams, frauds."

http://www.hilohawaiitribune.com/daily/2004/Feb-01-Sun-2004/news/news1.html

Not a fraud but just seem vicious ...

"... Hooker Furniture (Nasdaq: HOFT) has done good business by outsourcing much of its production to foreign countries while retaining design and marketing functions in the U.S. But as an article in Friday's Wall Street Journal reported, the company is adopting a Janus-faced stance with regards to its Chinese partners: On the one hand, it demands cut-rate prices from them; on the other, it has joined other U.S. furniture manufacturers in accusing them of dumping their goods at below fair-market value.
..."

http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04020215.htm

I have met'know people who behaves like above but wonder how common is this
sort of behaviour in business and commerce.

"don't-install-unknown-softare-how-hard-can-it-be dept.
Cocooner writes "News.com is reporting that some of the anti-spyware/adware software out there is doing more harm than good by acting as double agents. One example is a software package named SpyBan (google cache since the original site has been removed), which happened to be hosted by download.com, accused of installing Look2Me, which monitors and reports web surfing habits. SpyBan was downloaded over 44000 times before it was pulled. How 'low' can they go?"

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/05/1348212

"Data protection scam shut down
6 February 2004

A DATA protection scam that targeted thousands of businesses has been shut down by the High Court at the request of the official watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading.

Barry, Lee and Joan Parvin ran the self-styled Data Processing Protection Corporation from an address in Guisborough, N Yorkshire. They sent out misleading advertisements relating to notification with the

Information Commissioner under the Data Protection Act 1998.

The ads were designed to look as if they came from an official body and included a 95 charge. Not all business are required to register and those that do pay just 35.
..."

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/business/articles/timid74008?source=

Thought that I should pass this along - it sounds legitimate.....

There is another awful scam going on out there. You should alert any women you know and care about. I don't normally forward warnings about scams, but this one looks important.

If a man comes to your door and says he is conducting a survey and asks you to show him your tits, DO NOT SHOW HIM YOUR TITS. This is a scam.

He is only trying to see your tits.

LOL!

Sod off Gausie .... its a genuine survey I'm conducting.

:-)

Not a fraud and probably not a scam but something to be aware of when you
choose a bank ...

"Lenders only happy to share the bad news.

BANKS and building societies could be preventing customers from obtaining better deals from their competitors by withholding positive credit information about them.

The Consumers Association says that some financial services firms supply only negative data about customers, such as defaults on payments, to credit reference agencies. As a result, the credit score of those customers will be low.

When consumers try to switch banks or apply for new products from rival firms, they may find gaps in their credit records, and this makes switching to better deals difficult.

These claims are made in the latest edition of Which?

...

Abbey, Woolwich, Alliance and Leicester, and Northern Rock provide full information to agencies about their loan, current account and mortgage customers.

In other words, they record positive information such as payments made in full and on time as well as negative data. But Barclays, First Direct and HSBC supply only default information to credit agencies. Lloyds TSB, Nationwide and MBNA declined to respond to the survey.

..."


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8214-999832,00.html

EBAY.

Ebay have failed to stop a scam been operated on their UK site, despite complaints.

Beware if you look for an Apple IPOD on EBay, as some of the "auctions" are not for a physical IpOD, but only a LINK to a site where the vendor says you can buy a legit IPOD for 25!!!...yeah right!!!!

And watch out too for the Tiffany jewellery sellers that operate out of Hong Kong! They pupport to be based in the UK, but are actually located in USA or Hong Kong, both being places where FAKE Tiffany jewellery is sold, and this seems to be reflected in some of the feedback comments of certain selleers!

Ebay should be fined or closed down for allowing this, IMHO

"NYSE specialists reach $240 mn settlement.

Five NYSE specialist firms at the heart of insider trading allegations have reached a tentative $240 mn settlement with the SEC and the Big Board's enforcement arm. The fee is to settle civil charges that they allegedly stepped ahead of customer orders that came to the NYSE.

The agreement represents the stiffest fine involving specialist firms. The biggest burden is expected to fall on the shoulders of LaBranche which is expected to pay out $63.5 mn. Other firms including Van der Moolen, Fleet Specialist, Spear Leeds & Kellogg and Bear Wagner are expected to pay less. The deal requires approval by SEC commissioners.

If a $240 mn settlement is agreed, it will contain two elements: $90 mn in fines and $150 mn in money that was apparently misappropriated by specialists; both sums would be handed back to investors. Although a settlement would bring closure on this issue up to a point, any settlement still leaves specialists open to further legal action.

..."

http://www.ironthenet.com/newsarticle.asp?current=1&articleID=3288

Will it ever happen (ie. detection, fines and compensations) in the UK??

Mobile Hoax
17/02/04

Hi All,

We have been aware of the following mobile phone scam this morning, which reads as follows:

There is a new kind of mobile phone scam. A missed call will show on your mobile phone. The number is 0709 020 3840! The last four numbers may vary, but the first four numbers will remain the same! If you call this number back, you will be charged 50.00 per minute. People have complained about their phone bills, once they have realised the cost of the call, but apparently this is completely legal. So beware, do not call back numbers beginning with 0709

I have spoken to the relevant departments during the course of the day, and found that this scam is actually true.

Please advise customers not to return any missed calls beginning with an 0709 prefix, as they will be liable for the cost of the call.

Re. the 0709 scam :

There are similar (high) cost numbers scattered throughout the '07' range, eg. in 0700, 0704, 0762, 0766. Hence, don't only be on your guard for the the current one.

Just in case anybody isn't aware, the cost of all specialised numbers (from BT landlines, but its a good reference never-the-less) is available at

http://www.bt.com/Pricing/pis_info.jsp?PRICE_OPTION=Residential/PIS_Specialised_Numbers/innertext/&showsub=PIS_Residential&showsub2=PIS_Specialised_Numbers&c_index=07

D.

prodman/Dieng, these are not scams they are hoaxes and they are not true. There are no charge rates for UK calls even from mobiles that are anything like 50 per minute. Prodman your one was discussed on the traders thread yesterday.

http://www.icstis.org.uk/icstis2002/default.asp?node=-1

Spaceman ... you are of course correct !

I refer to BT's price list frequently and don't normally read 50.00p as 50.00 . However, on this occasion, I was expecting to see 50, so that is what I saw. Good job it wasn't a trade !

D.

"Credit card identity fraud jumps 45%.

Identity fraud involving credit and debit cards rose by 45% in 2003 despite the first fall in overall card fraud in eight years, according to new figures.

The practice of creating false accounts in another person's name, or taking control of another person's existing accounts, was worth 29.7 million in 2003, the Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) said.

..."

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/PA_NEWMONEYFraudmo15idfraud?source=

"CASH MACHINE SCAM GROWING.

...

The scam involves fitting a device to a cash machine which scans the card details as it enters the machine.

Those details can then be used to make a copy card - but the person's pin number is still needed. Police believe the people responsible are looking over the card-users' shoulder to watch them entering their number, or even using tiny secret cameras.

..."

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=104152&command=displayContent&sourceNode=102611&contentPK=9131575

"Roof falls in on buy-to-let scam

Investors who put 100m into social housing rentals face heavy losses as company at centre of scheme goes under.

Well over 1,000 people are nursing heavy losses after being duped by a dodgy property investment company promising "guaranteed" annual returns of 15%, it was revealed this week.

The investors, who included accountants, lawyers and doctors, handed over five- and six-figure sums after being seduced by the company's glossy brochures and slick spiel, which talked about how they could cash in on the buy-to-let boom.

The firm, PPP Ltd (known as Practical Property Portfolios), used adverts in publications such as the Financial Times to wax lyrical about the money that could be made by purchasing cheap properties in the north of England, which the company would refurbish and let out to "social housing" tenants.

...

PPP was based in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, and used a firm of solicitors called Murray Humphrey, which has offices across the north-east, while its "rental guarantee scheme" was underwritten by an Isle of Man insurance company called Templeton Insurance Ltd.

One of PPP's main directors, John Potts, clearly isn't (or wasn't) short of a bob or two. As well as driving a Bentley and an Aston Martin, he owns the actual red Jaguar MkII used in the TV detective series Inspector Morse.

...

Anyone with inquiries about PPP or its associated companies, which include Napeer (Holdings) Ltd, Napeer Housing Ltd, Bluebell Housing Ltd, Aaron de Vere Ltd and Janspeed Consultancy Ltd, should contact Anthony Supperstone and Charles MacMillan at BDO Stoy Hayward, 1 City Square, Leeds LS1 2DP.
"

http://society.guardian.co.uk/housing/story/0,7890,1163206,00.html

A variation on the missed call is a text message saying you have voicemail with a number to dial to retrieve. I had it twice but was suspicious - O2 told me the number redirects to an overseas premium rate.