Scammers Thrive In Coronavirus Lockdown

‘A phoney text scam notified recipients they had been seen leaving home and had to pay a £250 fine’

- Harvey Jones

As if the nation didn’t have enough on its plate with the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, it also has to stay alert against the ever-growing risk posed by fraud.

Crooks and con-artists are taking advantage of the crisis to find new ways of tricking people out of their money, and there is no guarantee of compensation if you are fooled.

Victims have lost thousands and taken a hit to their self-respect, as they feel gullible for succumbing to a scam that looked plausible at the time, but obvious in retrospect.

Fraudsters can put an incredible amount of effort into scams, building up personal profiles of targets, and visiting people’s homes, pretending to be from the police or their bank.

They pick their targets carefully, predominantly older people who tend to be more trusting and also have more pensions, savings, and investments to steal. The first line of defence should be your own common sense but be warned, they can diddle you out of that as well.

PENSION PLOT

Pension scams are evolving, as the government ban on cold calling has driven them online, the Pensions Policy Institute warned last week.

Scammers are now exploiting internet searches, email and social media to persuade victims to invest pensions in fake, get-rich-quick schemes. In 2018, the average victim lost an incredible £82,000.