BBC Article: Average Victim Loses £45k in Investment Scams.

soulsaver

Langtang said:

These are the kind of things that frighten me as a brand new investor, with regard to online investing. With web addresses easily copied now I'd be cautious, to the point of resisting, to invest. I know some people on these boards say DIY is the (cheapest) way to go, but to my mind c1% to an IFA vs 100% to a scammer is a no brainer.

I'm a bit like Janet, I like to think I am savvy in lots of ways (and I know when the Indian guy who phones me is called Phil Jones, that its a red light - you'd think they'd have cottoned on by now)

With my first steps into investing just around the corner, this is the last thing I want to hear...

There is a theory that they do 'stupid' things, wrong  spelling/wrong names, intentionally: If the person doesn't realise it's a scam & hang up/not reply they know they may found a more susceptible target.

verybigchris

Woah now, careful everyone. Some of you are implying that scams are a bad thing that should be avoided. This is MSE, and we'll have no such defamatory language here, thank you very much.

Eco_Miser

Langtang said:

 With web addresses easily copied now I'd be cautious, to the point of resisting, to invest.

Web addresses are, by their very nature, unique. However there are scam sites set up with common typos of genuine sites - so make sure you don't make typos.

There are also scam sites using visually identical, but different, characters. Unless you are in the habit of typing in Greek or Cyrillic the only way you will arrive at these sites is by clicking a dodgy link, or your DNS has been polluted.

There's also the problem of genuine sites with addresses nothing like the company or brand name causing potential victims to be too accepting of 'not-quite-right' addresses.

However with sufficient, but not excessive, caution, it's quite easy to find the correct sites for investment institutions, e.g., on the FCA register.

Albermarle

Langtang said:

These are the kind of things that frighten me as a brand new investor, with regard to online investing. With web addresses easily copied now I'd be cautious, to the point of resisting, to invest. I know some people on these boards say DIY is the (cheapest) way to go, but to my mind c1% to an IFA vs 100% to a scammer is a no brainer.

I'm a bit like Janet, I like to think I am savvy in lots of ways (and I know when the Indian guy who phones me is called Phil Jones, that its a red light - you'd think they'd have cottoned on by now)

With my first steps into investing just around the corner, this is the last thing I want to hear...

If you stick to mainstream investments/platforms then something is unlikely to go wrong . You can even just register without paying anything ( or a nominal sum ) and then get the passwords etc set up until you feel more confident.
These providers will never call you exhorting you to invest in this or that , although they will send general marketing e mails with recommendations etc .

masonic

The average of £45k lost in this type of scam is interesting in the context of average savings held by someone in the UK of £6.7k. Suggests the less wealthy are being effectively screened out.

verybigchris

I think a lot of the scams play on the victim's ego. They make out that the investment is "special" in some way, and only available to intelligent, savvy investors. Then when other people point out the flaws, their concerns can be easily dismissed as "you're just not clever enough to understand it". That's one reason (of many) why the victims tend to be quite wealthy and may have some kind of financial background themselves.

It's ironic that the "sophisticated investor" warning that's meant to protect people has actually been weaponised by the scammers instead.

BTW, I notice a certain other thread that we aren't allowed to talk about has now disappeared entirely.

webnibbler

I recently read about one of the biggest scams of all time, when many investors were defrauded by the Crypto Queen and her fake One Coin to the tune of £millions. Astonishing losses suffered recently by many people in the UK that you rarely hear much about.

Crypto is rife with scams for the unwary, especially at the moment with Bitcoin at ATH.

noclaf

We all need to be extra vigilant..trust your instincts if something seems to good to be true. During Covid it seems the no of scams has increased significantly.
A relative nearly got scammed by someone who was apparently from Microsoft and trying to gain access to their computer..they succeeded in that but fortunately said family member (who is a medic so fairly sharp and on the ball) eventually suspected something wasn't right. 
A lot of the best scams generally have a 'credible' sounding/looking person to front the campaign to get a bite on the hook for example if they are well spoken and can throw about a few fancy words and jargon it tends to improve their success rate.
For the scammers who call my elderly parents I like to sometimes waste their time on the call and stretch it out a bit

.yes tell me more about how I can get a 500% return or the accident I never had last week...
What I find more worrying though is that about a day after I logged into my gov gateway account to sort my taxes I suddenly started receiving a lot of spam texts and emails..the usual rubbish about an overdue tax return..click here. So it seems they are never too far away....or actively monitoring our online activity!

Albermarle

verybigchris said:

I think a lot of the scams play on the victim's ego. They make out that the investment is "special" in some way, and only available to intelligent, savvy investors. Then when other people point out the flaws, their concerns can be easily dismissed as "you're just not clever enough to understand it". That's one reason (of many) why the victims tend to be quite wealthy and may have some kind of financial background themselves.

It's ironic that the "sophisticated investor" warning that's meant to protect people has actually been weaponised by the scammers instead.

BTW, I notice a certain other thread that we aren't allowed to talk about has now disappeared entirely.

Apparently a significant % of victims are small business owners .

ratechaser

That reminds me, I had another call from 'HMRC' today... I tell you, those arrest warrants really are mounting up for me...