THE LOVE TRAP

Life entangles with mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable in our pursuits in as much we are still breathing. Many learn from errors of others in order not to fall victim of the same or similar mistakes. That is the essence of sharing personal experience so that other can learn from it. Sometimes we all need to take a "time out" to re-access our life and come up with a plan for our future. The world is waiting for us to be healed and when we are back on track, the world will embrace us again. Sharing your experience is significant in healing process and a great service to humanity, because no one can tell who your story will save next.

ONLINE DATING SCAMS: AUSTRALIANS LOSE $23M TO FRAUDSTERS!

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says internet dating scams accounted for 74percent of reports made to the organisation since August 2014, labelling romance cons the “CHIEF CULPRIT” of online frauds. Unlucky-in-love Aussies have lost more than $23m to fraudsters through online dating in the year 2014, the consumer watchdog says. Other common online scams identified by the ACCC related to jobs and investments (10%), unexpected prizes (10%) and unexpected money (6%).

Most victims of online dating scams started an online relationship which led them to send money overseas, ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said. Scammers targeted both men and woman, with fraudsters getting more techs savvy in targeting prospective victims. “Just over one third of these people were contacted by the scammers through social media channels,” she said in a statement. Scammers, many based in West Africa, often used stories about inheritances, gemstone dealings, gold bullion “or other unexplained wealth”. “These excuses and stories are designed to extract the maximum funds and commit the victim both financially and emotionally,” Rickard said.

Since August 2014, the ACCC said it has confirmed over 50 victims who have each lost about $34,000 each. The watchdog has also sent 1,500 letters to possible scam victims as part of its national scam disruption project. The crackdown comes after the ACCC in September conducted a snap review of 100 dating websites to check if they carried appropriate warnings about scams. Cyber safety consultant, Leonie Smith, said scammers were more likely to be active on platforms like Facebook and Twitter than on dedicated dating sites. “Use some of the more established dating sites if you want to look for love online,” Smith, of Cyber Safety Lady, said. It was also a good idea to confirm that an online profile did not use a photo copied from elsewhere on the internet. “You can actually download that picture and use Google image search to see if it pops up anyway else, that is a good step,” Smith said. Most importantly, Smith said, never hand over money or bank details to an online date. “That is when the alarm bells should ring,” she said. “You certainly should not be sending any money to someone you have not met face to face.

Culled from Guardian

MEET THIS ‘MODERN DAY HERO’ WHO IS DETERMINED TO OUTSCAM THE SCAMMERS

Cyber warrior John Siddle

This is cyber warrior John Siddle, his weapon, his computer. The battle! Conning the conmen who are out to rob innocent victims of thousands! By day Julian Siddle is an HGV mechanic. But in his free time he leads a very different life, as part of a group of volunteers engaged in a citizen fight back against online fraudsters: hunting them down, exposing them and freezing the flow of money into their accounts. This weekend he will be hunched in front of his computer, trying to con the conmen out of their own bank account details and then making the banks shut the accounts down. The group, all volunteers who offer legal advice to the public via a consumer rights website, LeagleBeagles.info, spend much of their spare time “baiting the scamsters”.

They claim to be gathering and reporting up to 10 accounts a week to the banks’ fraud departments, and claim a 100% success rate in reporting those that are being used for nefarious purposes. Thanks to their actions, the accounts are usually quickly closed down, denying the fraudster a chance to use them to launder victims’ money. In recent weeks Guardian Money has revealed how online fraudsters have been raking in millions of pounds by operating highly-sophisticated bank account and holiday home scams, with some victims losing life-changing sums as much as £80,000. Siddle told Money this week that, bank accounts are being sold on the “dark web” for two or three bitcoins (£500-£750), depending on access levels and withdrawal limits. He also claims there is growing evidence that some migrant workers returning to Eastern Europe are selling their legitimately-opened UK accounts to the highest bidder. An unassuming man in his 40s, Siddle shies away from the idea that he is a modern-day hero, stressing he is just part of a bigger team. He says he works in tandem with colleagues at similar sites Scamwarners.com and 419eaters.com whom he says are “pivotal”. Most of the volunteers behind the fight back are keen to remain anonymous, in part because they have received personal threats from the fraudsters. Siddle says they were shocked into action by the number of people posting their experiences on the LegalBeagles website.

Founded in 2007, this is a free forum offering advice and information on a variety of consumer issues. Many had lost life savings and, in at least one case, a victim had killed himself. Currently, the group is focused on East European gangs who have been very successfully conning people into buying used cars on sites such as eBay, Gumtree and Auto Trader. While this in itself is not new, the fraudsters are now creating sophisticated copycat websites of legitimate listings, especially those on eBay. The fraudster poses as the seller and persuades the buyers to transfer the cost of the vehicle typically between £3,000 and £8,000 to what they are led to believe is a safe “escrow” (holding) account at a mainstream bank. In fact, the fraudster has simply hacked into the emails or accounts of the legitimate seller, or created fake web pages. The buyer receives a reply after using the “contact us” function, giving them the confidence that they are dealing with a genuine company. After being lured in, buyers are given a range of excuses as to why they cannot come to see the car; instead, they are told it will be delivered to their door. Only if the buyer is happy with the car will the funds be released. The reality is that the cars are never delivered and the “holding account” is emptied within two hours, leaving the consumer defrauded and with no redress. Siddle says there were 3,500 known victims last year, who collectively lost £17.8m but he suspects the real number is much higher. “Last weekend around 300 car advertisements on the web were tampered with and our group sets out to find them. Once you know what you are doing they are actually quite easy to spot, and we then contact the person selling the car pretending to be an interested buyer.” Siddle and his colleagues ask all the typical questions that a buyer would ask, and agree to purchase the vehicle. At this point the scamsters will typically email details of the bank account into which they want the money paid.

 The aim is to take up as much of the fraudsters’ time as possible partly to stop real victims from handing over their money. “In one case, I managed to get them to hand over the sort codes and numbers of six different bank accounts. We are facing an uphill battle, but we do what we can. I suspect the fraudsters have thousands of accounts just waiting to be used.” Siddle says it took some time for the banks to trust the group, but in many cases it now has a direct line for reporting incidents to the fraud departments. But if Siddle can track down the scamsters, why aren’t the banks or the police doing more? “The problem is that the banks aren’t being held responsible and because they are not losing the money, they are not very interested in resolving it. Generally, only losses of more than £10,000 are reported to the police. The scamsters know this, and keep each separate fraud to below this figure.” He is critical of the way victims are told to report matters to Action Fraud or “Inaction Fraud”, as his group calls it to which victims are all told to go. “They think that something immediate will be done with that information, but, misleadingly, it is rarely used for anything other than statistics and data.” He has also questioned the role of prosecutors. Victims were recently told that one group of alleged fraudsters were arrested and later charged, but simply disappeared after being let out on bail. Gary Miles, head of the fraud squad at the Metropolitan police, told Money this week that various scams covered in these pages are being taken seriously. He said his team is examining 3,500 victim files as part of Operation Ranavarma, and that arrests have resulted. “There are a number of groups operating the types of frauds that you describe, and we continue to analyse the data coming in from Action Fraud and others to establish patterns and further lines of inquiry.” He says his team has proactively been in contact with “all the banks” as well as the businesses whose customers have been targeted, to examine what measures can be put in place to disrupt and prevent more offences. “Victims can be assured that their stories are being heard and all available action is being taken, but the international nature of these crimes means they are not solved overnight.” Meanwhile, Siddle is keen to reiterate the long-held advice to buyers not to hand over any money in any form unless they are physically looking at the car. “They are very good at what they do, and they’ll give all sorts of reasons why you can’t come and see it. But if a seller can’t show you the actual car he’s selling, always walk away and find another who will,” he says.

Barclays targeted

Some weeks ago Guardian Money highlighted an action group’s claims that Barclays was the number one choice of fraudsters targeting users of the Owners Direct and HomeAway websites. Now another group of campaigners has alleged Barclays accounts are also overwhelmingly being used to launder money by those carrying out the vehicle purchase fraud, highlighted here. The LegalBeagles recently told the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills that while “each and every UK bank is affected” by this issue, Barclays Bank is “predominantly the bank of choice for fraudulent accounts, particularly in and around the London area”. It provided BIS with a list of accounts they had captured. Out of the 97 reported to BIS, 80 were Barclays. Money has already told how more than 90% of those who had fallen for the Owners Direct scam had paid the money into a Barclays account. However, the bank continues to deny liability. “This needs investigation to see if there are any differences or failings to verify identities on account opening (at Barclays), operating and monitoring procedures, or if any patterns of insider activity is enabling this to happen,” the LegalBeagles’ document stated. The group said that at all the major banks not just Barclays procedures relating to account opening, operating and monitoring “are questionable, particularly CDD [customer due diligence] checks, KYC [know your customer] monitoring and document fraud/checks when first opening accounts, as is their responsibility under anti-money laundering regulations”. Unlike some other banks, Barclays accepts foreign passports or driving licences from anywhere in the world as ID, although a UK address is required. Barclays says it “takes any scam issues very seriously. We want to eliminate the use of Barclays accounts for scams and appreciate any information provided to us to assist with this. “Barclays does not open accounts with dubious ID or inadequate verification. We have robust identity and verification processes in place, complying with all regulatory requirements. We are committed to ongoing improvements to our processes and technology to support this.”

Culled from Guardian

INVESTMENT SCAM POTENTIAL VICTIMS SUBJECT OF NEW CAMPAIGN

Financial Conduct Authority is to use money recovered from financial crime to try to end £1.2bn lost to investment fraud. Potential victims of investment scams are to be warned by a national campaign set up by the City watchdog to tell them about the increasingly sophisticated techniques used by fraudsters. The Financial Conduct Authority will for the first time use money recovered from the proceeds of financial crime to inform those, typically over 65, who collectively lose £1.2bn a year to investment fraud. The average investor loses around £20,000, said the watchdog, which also said it receives around 5,000 calls a year from investors about suspected investment fraud. While many of the emails and brochures sent out by fraudsters might seem obviously criminal to some householders, Martin Wheatley, the chief executive of the FCA said that these scams could dupe even experienced investors out of their savings. In fact existing shareholders were 2.5 times more likely to be a victim, said the FCA, as those nearing retirement and actively looking to invest are the main targets. “With large numbers of people at risk, it’s important to know how to spot the signs of a potential scam,” Wheatley said. “Our message is simple, don’t accept a cold call.”

The pensions industry has already expressed concern that, with changes to pensions rules coming this year; fresh scams are expected to surface encouraging the over-55s to put large chunks of their pension into dodgy investments supposedly offering staggering returns. Clive Osborne was one potential victim targeted by a cold call who, after some communication with the company, realised it was a scam. Osborne, 65, was called by a company out of the blue to see whether he was interested in selling shares that his mother owned. At the time, he had power of attorney for her and was looking to sell. “The company was a brokerage firm from America and they said they were acting on behalf of a client, who wished to buy the shares to make a hostile takeover bid and they were willing to pay a premium on the shares,” he said. “Their website looked very professional, they dealt with mergers and acquisitions and international currency deals and so on. They spoke very well, they were friendly but professional.” He added: “I thought I could spot a scam and, for a long time, I could not spot where the scam was and where they were going to make any money out of it. The deal clincher for me was when they asked for a £5,000 bond to be placed to ensure that this deal went through.” He said that the whole experience had left him feeling “annoyed, a bit guilty, and a little bit perhaps embarrassed that I was almost caught by the scam.” The FCA will be using the £1m it has from the proceeds of crime to invest in national newspaper adverts and online editorial to warn potential victims about investment scams.

Culled from Guardian