Posts

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Fresh Warning Over Investment Scams

The Financial Conduct Authority is warning investors to be alert 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

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Timeshare Trial May Hold Key To Solve Murder Case

The partner of serial Timeshare fraudster John “Goldfinger” Palmer is facing trial in Spain this week, in a case which police say could hold the key to his murder. Christina Ketley and Richard Cashman are accused of selling non-existent timeshares on Palmer’s orders, whilst he was behind bars serving 8 years for fraud.

In June 2018, Ms Ketley offered a £100,000 reward for information leading to the prosecution of those responsible for the murder of John Palmer. Ms Ketley said: “It haunts us every day to think that whoever was responsible was clearly watching John, Harassing him like an animal … Read more

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Victims of Wine Investment Fraud are increasingly being targeted by scammers

Action Fraud working alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, has stated that it has seen an increase in reports of this nature over the past six months. Former victims of wine fraud, who were tricked by scammers between four and six years ago, are now being targeted again by individuals Asserting that they can resell their wines in return for an insurance or shipping fee. Between 1 June 2018 and 31 December 2018, there were 22 reports made to Action Fraud, with victims losing a total of £97,914. Victims were typically aged between 46 and 86 years old, and sent … Read more

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Money Launderers Jailed Over £67,000 Phone Banking Fraud

A student has been jailed and four others have been sentenced over a £67,000 phone fraud. The judge in the case said the defendants acted as money launderers for a gang who defrauded a care home owner out of her entire life savings and destroyed her life.

The scam caused the victims business to fold and left her an emotional wreck. Judge Stephen Ward said: “If it were not for people like you, serious criminals would find life a lot more difficult”.

The victim was contacted in June 2017 by scammers posing as Barclays Bank to say her personal and … Read more

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RCI and Bluegreen Vacations Renew Partnership

The worldwide leader in vacation exchange membership, RCI, and Bluegreen Vacations have renewed their ongoing partnership. Bluegreen Vacations operate over 60 vacation resorts throughout the US, which will continue to be part of the RCI programme and exchange network. Bluegreen resorts are located across the United States and Caribbean in destinations including Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Aspen, Las Vegas and New York City.

Famous Rhodes, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Bluegreen Vacations said: “Bluegreen is a company built on the strength of its long-term relationships, as such we are very excited about the renewal of this enduring partnership … Read more

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Multiple Lawsuits Against Marriott For Huge Data Breach

Marriott Hotels and Resorts has been hit with a huge class-action lawsuit over the data breach which saw 500 million customers affected, and that’s just the start. Under GDPR, the hospitality giant could face the world’s first significant fine under the new data protection act.

Despite Marriott being headquartered in the US, the breach falls under European wide GDPR rules, meaning the group now faces financial penalties of up to 4% of its annual global revenue. And in 2017 Marriott generated approximately 22.9 Billion US dollars in revenue last year. The news doesn’t get any better over in the US … Read more

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Who’s side is your bank on?

The BBC programme, Watchdog, has investigated the story of a young victim who was beaten and left insensible in a park and then had his entire inheritance raided from his bank account. To make matters worse his bank, NatWest, refused to help him.

Attackers made 39 transactions in one day, raiding the victims entire account, all whilst he was lying unconscious in hospital. NatWest refused to accept that the £20,000 spending spree was nothing to do with him, despite being provided evidence he was in hospital at the time the transactions were made. The young victim, named in the … Read more

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Major Data Breach at Amazon

Just two days before Black Friday launched, Amazon has suffered a major data breach, which caused customer names and email addresses to be unveiled on its website. Amazon has emailed the customers affected, but has refused to say how many customers were affected. Amazon say this is not a breach of the website’s security or any of its systems, but a technical issue, that led to customers names and email addresses being posted.

Amazon said: “We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted.”

Customers who received an email were told: “Our website inadvertently disclosed … Read more

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Hundreds of customers locked out of accounts on Black Friday !

HSBC customers looking to grab a bargain on Black Friday had a nasty shock when they learned that they were locked out of their bank accounts. The HSBC mobile banking system went down last Friday, at the height of the Black Friday sales. It was unfortunate timing for shoppers, who needed to use their online banking apps to take advantage of the Black Friday deals. It is also bad timing, as MP’s announce they are investigating banks and the numerous IT failures reported this year.

Last month, HSBC online banking went down, leaving customers locked out of their bank accounts. … Read more

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Letting agency demanding money for simply viewing a property

The BBC programme Victoria Derbyshire has found that a letting agency has been demanding hundreds of pounds from prospective tenants to view properties for rent. The agency in question is Flintons in London and, so far, they have denied all these allegations, but these practices breach guidelines and could be illicit.

Despite denying the allegations, several of Flintons clients told the BBC programme they were told by estate agents that they would receive a refund if they did not want to take a tenancy agreement on the property they were viewing, but, when they did request refunds, were told the … Read more

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