Common Online Investment Scams in the UK

Internet monitoring agencies such as The UK Office of Fair Trading has warned internet users to be careful of tricksters who are taking advantage of gullible people by swindling of billions of pounds annually. The conning operation, commonly known as phising is generally done in the following manner.

The most infamous fraud through the internet is what is now known at the African advance-fee conning. The email senders introduce themselves as unfortunate members of a corrupt ruling family or dismissed political leader with enormous sums of money. They now want your help to stash away a part of the money with a bank in your country through your account number, which you should tell them. They also request you to send an advance amount to take care of the legalities of the transfer. You are assured of a huge percentage of the money thus transferred. But once you blindly follow their instructions, you are sure to lose your advance fee, as well as your entire savings you had under the bank account number.

In another type of fraud, advertisements appear on the internet and elsewhere promising lucrative home based employment, requiring any experience or investment. However, the respondents have to pay a registration fee or the payment for the first installment of the promised product. Once the fee is paid, the matter ends there and the hapless victims are left dry and high to fend for themselves.

A favorite scam of some other unscrupulous elements is to email victims about winning unexpected windfall of huge lottery prizes or sweepstakes in a foreign country. The surprised and naive victims are then asked to send a fee as processing charges to finalize the transactions. But, nothing really comes out after the fee is remitted. In a similar scam, but with a different twist, the consumers receive a text or automated phone message asking them to call back on a premium rate number to get more information on a big prize they have just won. The callers are lured to use the phone for a long time, ultimately spending their hard earned money as phone charges in vain for all their efforts.

The conmen lie in wait for potential victims at tourist destinations or call at their homes offering free premium holidays all over the world. After signing up the agreement, the agents vanish, and the customers end up paying for flights and other additional charges for unpopular holiday destinations at unfavorable times of the year, putting a severe strain on their finances and peace of mind.

Some other tricksters use the internet to e-mail people to inform about highly profitable investment in shares, antiques, gem stones or other exotic items and schemes. The customers are lured into the belief that the cost of these seemingly lucrative products will touch the sky within a few years. Hence, the customers are forced to part with precious money in the form of highly escalated, risky and purely speculative schemes.

Another type of conning is known as pyramid selling by which people are made to pay for membership in lieu of hefty commissions on hard-selling products to friends and relatives, who themselves eventually become members by paying membership fees. In this way the chain expands, while the members hardly get any commission in the long run and end up losing money. Another common type of financial scam in the internet is the easy-to-get loan offer. Customers are offered loans with out any security or guarantee at unbelievably low interest rates, provided you pay all the processing charges upfront. Once, the charges are paid, the swindlers simply vanish into thin air.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.