Scams and Friends Against Scams Organisation

The fraudster attempts to get the victim to make upfront payments for goods, services, or financial gains, that don’t exist. Examples of these are lottery, clairvoyant or psychic, inheritance scams etc.

The fraudster pretends to be someone official such as from a bank, the police or HMRC, and convinces the victim that suspicious activity on their bank account has been detected. They will then get the victim to transfer money into a 'safe' bank account.

The victim will receive a cold call from the scammer who will claim there is a problem with their computer. The scammers claim to be from we known companies such as Sky, Virgin and BT to gain the victims trust and attempt to gain remote access to the their computer, this gives them access to everything on the computer. Scammers have been known to take control of victims bank accounts, steal personal information and even charge for the privilege.

Fraudsters will go from door to door unexpectedly offering goods and services. These are often overpriced, and if the service goes ahead, the work is undertaken to a poor standard. The scammers will often use high pressure sales tactics to intimidate the victim into going ahead with purchase. 

Fraudsters use fake profiles on dating websites and convince their victims that they are in a relationship. Once they have established the victims trust the scammer will begin asking for money for sick relatives or business opportunities that can’t go ahead due to cashflow problems. The scammers are always keen to meet but have a range of excuses why that they can’t, such as working away in a foreign country.