This short guide has been produced to help people avoid being scammed and to help carers protect the elderly and vulnerable.
OFT Scam Video – Tricks of the Trade
This section is presented by Angela Rippon who warns consumers about lottery scams. Scammers tend to target the vulnerable such as the elderly, but not exclusively – 3 million people a year fall for these scams. Some are very sophisticated and scammers will often keep coming back for more. They use human psychology to their advantage: there is an irresistible prize that stops you from thinking logically; they often use the voice of authority such as the president of a bank; they use of fake testimonials; many of the prizes are personalised and there are often fake deadlines.
OFT Scam Video – Four Tips to Avoid Being Scammed
1. Don’t send money off straight away always talk it through with a friend.
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
3. You never have to send money off to claim a legitimate prize.
4. Never give people you don’t know your personal details, including bank account information.
OFT Scam Video – Protecting the Vulnerable
The support of carers is absolutely vital and your support is essential.
Warning signs:
1. The house is full of junk mail, perhaps 20-30 items received every day.
2. They have lots of cheap low quality goods and miracle health cures.
3. They are secretive about their finances.
What you can do about it:
1. Encourage them to get advice from CAB or Consumer Direct, speak to a friend or neighbour.
2. You can also get all their mail forwarded to a trusted neighbour or a member of the family.
3. You can get them to sign up for the Mail Preference Service (0845 703 4599) and the Telephone Preference Service (0845 070 0707). These will cut out a lot of the junk mail and unwanted calls.
Join our 
I was recently approached by a company called ‘Nights Out UK’ (www.nightsout-uk.com), and offered work through them. I was told that once I paid a 299 pound start-up fee, my image would be circulated through the database of clients, who are generally very wealthy clients who need dates to take with them to evenings out, the theatre, dinner etc. They offer a lot of money (and the promise of no sexual content), but before I start work I have to pay the fee. When they gave me the bank details to transfer the funds, the details were for a personal bank account. I asked to be provided with a contract, and they declined. They have also not given me anything in writing by way of email, which makes me suspicious. I’ve trawled through loads of online information about scams but can’t seem to find anything about them, comments or reviews. Can anyone help me/offer an opinion on this matter?
I too have recieved an invite to join this members club for a one off payment of £299. She sounds very convincing promising me work that could pay upto £300 a night, if its too good to be true it usually is.
The theft of valuable possessions by Safestore London:
Recently a friend of mine was working in Congo on a humanitarian project. It had been explained to the store that he was unable to make payment until my return to the UK due to my accounts being frozen due to his financial information being hacked into while I was on location. Nevertheless company took it upon itself to sell all of his worldly possessions which had been amassed over many years. These included an extensive collection of valuable art, antiques and furniture etc The total value of these items ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds. He had also offered that the store manager examine in his absence the content and take one or two items as collateral which would have more than covered any debt.
The store claims to have sold the entire contents for just over £2000 which leads one to the conclusion that these goods have been purposely been sold for a tiny fraction of there worth in collusion with the company and a third party. The company failed to provide an inventory of the goods removed from the unit, to whom they where given to, the individual sale prices of any of the items and any form of breakdown. My friend contacted the company for a full explanation of your actions only to be given a series of completely contradictory explanations and excuses and a virtual demand that he accept their findings.
A police report has been made implicating your company in the theft of his possessions, a further report is to be made with further findings uncovered by two investigative journalists.
The directors of this company are:
Richard Grainger, Non-Executive Chairman
Peter Gowers, Chief Executive Officer
Richard Hodsden, Chief Financial Officer
Frederic Vecchioli, President,
UPP Adrian Martin, Senior Independent Director
Alan Lewis, Non-Executive Director
Keith Edelman, Non-Executive Director
We would strongly recommend that anyone storing goods of any value read this before doing so.
Does anybody know anything about an accommodation adress and post forwarding service called: “Pay as you go post.com” ? It is advertised hundreds of times on the internet. Its telephone is no longer a working number and it does not reply to e-mails.
In advance, many thanks.
Richard von Sagis
I recently purchased an item online with a company called gstarshopengland.com I am having concerns as there is no way of contacting them they have taken the money from my bank account. Has anyone heard of them or got any advice how to get my money back