Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
As the economy continues to falter, the crooks are getting busier! Here are two more phone scams that have come to our attention.
Firstly we’ve heard of a phone and doorstep scam where fraudsters are pretending to be from the Council, saying that you’ve either over-paid your Council Tax or you’re late with the payment.
They then ask for your bank details so that they can either pay back the amount you’re owed or make sure you don’t get charged for late payment. Surprise, surprise, they then transfer money out of your account and you can’t trace it. There are more details in this article from the BBC.
Then we’ve had news from the credit-scoring company Equifax that people in debt are being targeted buy con-men pretending to be from the Office of Fair Trading or their bank or a consumer body and saying that they can have bank charges paid back to them. They…yes you guessed it…get people’s bank details off them ‘so that we can put the money in your account’ and ask them to pay an upfront fee to cover expenses.
So, these very persuasive fraudsters get your bank details and some upfront money. Clever!
More and more we need to get more wary about strangers visiting or phoning and asking for our bank details. It’s just not worth it. If you think you might have been scammed, get hold of your credit report for free to see if anyone is syphoning money out of your account without your knowing it. And tell the police if you have been scammed – there’s no shame, it’s happening to everyone and these people are getting far to clever!