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Five fraudsters have been jailed for a total of 17 years and nine months, for conning vulnerable victims out of nearly £1 million.

The five men were facing charges of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. The court heard how, between 2013 and 2015, the group of men conned more than 50 victims into a fraud and money laundering scam. The men would cold-call elderly and vulnerable people, introduce themselves under fake names and claim they were brokers with expertise in fine wine.

They operated from an industrial estate based in Great Dunmow, and claimed to work for three companies, … Read more

Travellers looking to book their Hajj pilgrimage this August, are being warned to stay clear of deals that seem to good to be true.

With over 25,000 British Muslims expected to make the Hajj pilgrimage this August, the Civil Aviation Authority is launching a campaign to ensure that this often once in a lifetime trip is not scuppered by booking through a disreputable company, or those falsely posing as reputable travel agents. The Civil Aviation Authority’s campaign is working to protect travellers after an increasing trend in the sale of illegal or fake package deals. In the worst cases, … Read more

Hilton Grand Vacations is urging a court of appeal to drop a lawsuit alleging the Timeshare giant bombarded consumers with unwanted Robocalls.

Melanie Glasser brought the dispute to court and argued that Hilton Grand Vacations was a ‘classic telemarketer’ and alleged that Hilton made 15.9 million timeshare marketing calls during a six month period. She states that her suit is exactly the type of problem that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act was created for.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was adopted into U.S law in an effort to address the growing number of telephone marketing calls. The TCPA restricts … Read more

A former timeshare owner was promised a flashy vacation, but instead ended up spending $21,000 on a timeshare. He was approached by a timeshare resort in 2017 and thought it would be a good time for him to invest, as his children were getting married and he thought it might make a nice honeymoon destination for them. He also employed several staff at his own small business, and wanted to offer it as an employee perk for loyal staff members.

It is a financial decision, he now says he regrets. He spoke with a news channel in the U.S in … Read more

A cold-calling company based in Swansea has been caught on CCTV pressurising elderly victims into buying boilers that didn’t exist.

Renewable Energy Centre Ltd, offered victims a free boiler under what they said was a government scheme, all people had to do was pay a one-off upfront fee of either £299 or £399.

The company managed to con 1,200 people into paying this fee, but only three households ever received their new boilers. The three elderly victims who did receive their new boiler, were actually unknowingly signed up for monthly repayments lasting 12 months.

A four year investigation was carried … Read more

The Information Commissioner’s Office has fined Vote Leave Limited £40,000 for sending out thousands of unsolicited text messages during the 2016 EU referendum. Following an investigation by the ICO, discovered that the Vote Leave campaign sent 196,154 text messages promoting the Leave Campaign. The text messages contained a link to its website.

The ICO found that the Leave campaign claimed they had received people’s details legitimately, but had actually deleted the evidence of consent after the referendum. They also deleted details of the phone numbers the messages were sent from, the number of messages sent, and the number of messages … Read more

Action Fraud have released a statement saying that organised criminal groups led by married couples and families are scamming pension holders to the tune of millions of pounds.

Action Fraud say criminal investigations involving regulators, government agencies and police forces are currently ongoing into a number of these gangs. In some cases, the fraudsters have hired fraudulent financial experts with pension experience to run large-scale scams. The fraudsters would not be able to run these scams without the insider knowledge of fraudulent experts.

Victims report receiving cold-calls, offers of free pension reviews and promises of high returns. However a ban … Read more

The Financial Conduct Authority is warning investors to be vigilant when investing their hard earned cash. Action Fraud has revealed that over £197 million was reported as stolen by scammers in 2018. On average, victims were conned out of £29,000 each, the FCA and Action Fraud are warning investors to be on the lookout for increasingly sophisticated fraudsters.

Data from the FCA call centre shows, that the most common scam reported involved investments in shares and bonds, forex and cryptocurrencies. The companies offering these products are not registered with the FCA and together they account for 85% of all … Read more

A man from Essex who lived a lavish lifestyle, has been jailed for eight years after mis-selling carbon credits to 130 victims in 2012 and 2013. He was found guilty of six counts of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.

The police say victims received cold calls from apparent brokers through companies named as Harman Royce Ltd and Kendrick Zale Ltd, and were persuaded into investing in voluntary emission reductions. They targeted people living in affluent areas and were all aged 50 and over. Carbon Credits were charged at between £5.26 and £6.50 with victims loses totalling £1.5 million.

Police … Read more

Action Fraud has revealed that two people have reported to the service, that they have lost more than £1 million each to pension scams. However, Action Fraud believes this is only the tip of the iceberg as many victims never contact the authorities to report it and so the total amount of people who have handed over such large pension pots is unknown.

In 2017, the average loss of pension scams was £91,000. Victims reported receiving cold-calls, offers of free pension reviews and promises that they would get high return rates, all of these promises are warning signs of … Read more