Scam?

Beddie

libra10 said:

Thanks very much for everyone's replies.

Just as I thought, and have been trying to convince him.

I wouldn't have considered him to be particularly vulnerable, but feel that he has been pressured into this scam.  

There is information regarding potential scams on Centrica's website, also other institutions, but unfortunately he feels that he has to go through with sending the money, as he is being phoned again later and he would have broken the contract.

Have forwarded a copy of this thread to him, and hoping he will realise that he hasn't signed an enforcable contract.

Thanks very much

Please get him to block the number and not to worry about the fake "contract" - it's all part of the scam.

jaypers

It’s not even a debate. 100% a scam. These things always are. 

wiseonesomeofthetime

How come the OP is tuppence, but the friend changes to libra10 in later post 🤔

[Deleted User]

I have two accounts, mainly use the other one.

eskbanker

[Deleted User] said:

Whoops!

I have two accounts, mainly use the other one.

Worth contacting the forum admins to sort that out for you, as it breaches the rules....

One person = one account

It keeps things simple, and we will act on duplicates and any attempts to bypass this.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs/#behaviour

Albermarle

libra10 said:

Thanks very much for everyone's replies.

Just as I thought, and have been trying to convince him.

I wouldn't have considered him to be particularly vulnerable, but feel that he has been pressured into this scam.  

There is information regarding potential scams on Centrica's website, also other institutions, but unfortunately he feels that he has to go through with sending the money, as he is being phoned again later and he would have broken the contract.

Have forwarded a copy of this thread to him, and hoping he will realise that he hasn't signed an enforcable contract.

Thanks very much

He might as well take 200 x £20 notes and burn them in the fire.
In fact that would be better as some scumbag fraudster would not get the benefit.

mikb

CliveOfIndia said:

[Deleted User] said:

I have a relative who I am convinced is being scammed.

Your conviction is 100% correct.  This has every hallmark known to mankind of being a scam, there's not a shred of doubt about it.

[Deleted User] said:

But he believes that because he has signed some form of contract he will be forced to pay

That signature isn't worth tuppence.

As others have said, he needs to block the phone number and have nothing more to do with the nice lady.  Although, I do know these scammers can be pretty adept at spoofing phone numbers, so blocking a particular number might not actually be much help.

The biggest problem you've got right now is to convince him that it is indeed a scam, that nothing bad will happen, and that he must just totally ignore any further communications that may come through.

Easier said than done if someone is in a vulnerable position.  I don't in any way intend that to be derogatory towards your relative, but if they have fallen for the initial set-up and are now worried about potential repercussions, you do need to help them out.  These scammers can be nastily persuasive, you might have a job on your hands to convince him to believe you rather than the scammer.

Repercussions: Prepare them to receive possible follow up calls from others, e.g. FAKE solicitors acting on behalf of Nice Lady Investments inc seeking to recover costs. Or FAKE calls from "Your Bank" regarding a scammer that may have contacted you recently, offering to protect your money from them by transferring it to a new "secure account" (guess where THAT money goes ...) Be alert. Cold calls are NOT to be trusted ... anything involving URGENT action or secrecy/confidentiality under the guise of a so-called "investigation" into the scammers? It's a bad sign, and probably just the scammer's mate sat at the next desk.

Marcon

MeteredOut said:

If you want some fun, play along, tell them scammer that the £4K has been transferred. Mock up face "transfer confirmation" emails from the bank and send them on.

A truly stupid suggestion...

jaypers

I have some involvement in trying to help and educate people about scams, aim being to stop scammers in their tracks. Every scam stopped is a win. The crime is absolutely huge, with massive overseas call centres set up, in much the same way as a legitimate business but their business is to steal money from people. It’s rife and it continues to escalate into a bigger and bigger issue. These criminals are clever and use all kinds of tactics to socially engineer and trick people in all sorts of different ways. They also continually adapt their tactics to take advantage of peoples fears…..covid was a great example and the scammers used this in all sorts of ways to steal from people. 

The weak link are the innocent people who are robbed. Everyone is different, some are just very trusting, some may have some sort of mental impairment that makes them more vulnerable, elderly people are also a particular target but saying this, absolutely anyone can be tricked into being scammed. The crime is abhorrent. If everyone stopped trusting all unsolicited calls, emails, texts, unknown QR codes, cold callers and web links it would probably be wiped out overnight. Unfortunately, for every person who may be switched on to these things, there are 10 others who will be conned. 

If it seems too good to be true, it always is, but there is so much more to this than that.

Rant over! 

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the information.

I've sent our relative a link to this post, and expressed our concerns very strongly.

We're hoping that he realises that this is definitely a scam, and fear that if he does pay that won't be the end of it.  When the 'shares' have been supposedly sold and he doesn't receive any return, the scammer will be demanding more money for some ridiculous reason.

Also, he will become a victim of more scammers.