TFL 5% savings account scam

AndyTh_2

masonic said:

mjm3346 said:

MSE have mentioned before a site you can use to check if your e-mail address has been exposed  - not sure how long it takes for one to show up

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

No pwnage found in my case. The address I used was unique to TfL. However, that site also says the same about another email address I know was subject to a breach, so I don't think it is very reliable.

The website only shows publicly available or purchased breach data. Not all breaches are available because of that.

masonic

Site is back offline, DNS points to a non-existent server and the scammer doesn't have the ability to change this. Hopefully they won't be able to work around that.

Section62

london21 said:

Scammers are becoming more wild. A transport company now financial investment company also now.

If it sounds too good, it probably is.

Importance to check everything before putting a penny in. 

TfL's financial troubles have been extensively publicised in London and more widely.  They need more cash to stave off 'bankruptcy' on the operational side, and have a very large need for capital investment.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tfl-funding-deal-likely-department-for-transport-b1017714.html

If you didn't know what TfL does, reading some of their board documents could easily leave you thinking they were a bank or financial services business (e.g.) -

5.6 TfL will consider the risk of its overall portfolio as well as individual investments, seeking to diversify its investments as much as possible and have regard to the exposure to any one counterparty, country, industry, investment type, and credit. TfL will target allocating a portion of the portfolio across sovereign
exposures, government agencies, financial institutions, and corporate instruments, subject to investments available at the time.
https://board.tfl.gov.uk/documents/s16596/fc-20211006-item09b-TMS-TMP-appx1.pdf

TfL have a very substantial internal organisation dealing with the financial side of the business - as any organisation would that has multi-billion expenditures.

The scam is more than plausible.  The mistake the scammers made was not using the word "bond" in the headline.

RobM99

Tfl (just as an example) offering savings isn't as daft as it sounds. Supermarket and car brands do.

masonic

Agree that it's not beyond the realms of possibility. The lack of financial press coverage is a big red flag, alongside lack of any details on the official website. Quite often scammers target real corporate bond issues from financial institutions, passing them off as retail savings accounts. Of course those responding to the scam will just have their money stolen.

Malthusian

RobM99 said:

Tfl (just as an example) offering savings isn't as daft as it sounds. Supermarket and car brands do.

And don't forget novelty minibonds where you hand over your savings in exchange for a box of chocolates every month or some flowers, as extensively promoted by the national press.

juliahowes

masonic said:

Site is back offline, DNS points to a non-existent server and the scammer doesn't have the ability to change this. Hopefully they won't be able to work around that.

Yup, the site looks dead, hopefully for good this time.

Good job everyone, I'd like to believe we managed to save some poor soul from these scammers