When it comes to being aware of the different scams that you may find yourself at risk of, there are some scams that go together. This means that you can give yourself a greater level of protection by thinking about both of these crimes as being connected. Anything which helps to give you a greater chance of avoiding being scammed has to be seen as a good thing, so make sure that you know what these scams are and what you can do to avoid them.
- Boiler Room Scams
- Recovery Room Scams
It is fair to say that these aren’t the most familiar or common scams you will ever find, but it is worth making yourself aware of them. People who have fallen victims to these crimes find themselves out a significant amount of money. There is also the fact that as many of these crimes are carried out by people outside of the United Kingdom, it can be difficult for people to get their money back. Add in the fact that sometimes victims of these crimes can suffer significant financial losses and you soon have a list of crimes that are well worth being aware of.
Boiler Room Scams
This style of fraud is named after the fact that the fraudsters and criminals undertaking the crime are usually located in a room making cold-calls to people. The most common form of boiler room scam comes in the form of selling shares. The potential buyer will be informed of the great deal that is on offer and that they need to act fast in order to get in on the deal while it is still available. There is an element of high pressurised selling here, which means that people will feel as though they need to buy now or miss out.
While it may seem as though there is a tremendous deal on offer, in actual fact, the shares will be worth nothing or very little. This means that the person will lose out, and given that many people are convinced into shelling out a considerable sum of money for the shares, there is a significant loss. Aside from shares, a common tactic utilised in boiler room scams focuses on selling land. Due to the nature of the UK property market in recent times, it is clear that there is money to be made on land deals.
This is what fraudsters tap into when they make calls about selling land, but of course, the land on offer is worth next to nothing or nothing at all. No matte what element is being sold with respect to boiler room scams, the crime plays on human nature.
Even though people will always be wary of an offer that seems to good to be true, the desire to make money will often be the overriding emotion or decision maker when it comes to taking action. Sadly, criminals know this all too well and this is why boiler room scams remain a very common type of fraud.
Recovery Room Scam
The recovery room scam is often considered to be a sister of the boiler room scam but there is a different twist to this type of fraud. This is because a recovery room fraud will focus on people who have already been defrauded. The fraudster will make contact with the victim and promise to provide help in recovering funds.
Given that a person has just been a victim of fraud, you would think that they would be alert to falling victim again but being told that there is a chance that they could make their money back will always be enticing to people. This means that their guard will likely be down, which can cause people to make bad decisions that they wouldn’t normally make.
The victim will be told that for an upfront fee, the firm will take on the case and say that they have a history of achieving success and claiming money from some of compensation fund. The fraudster will provide websites and documents showing their track record and respectability but these will all be false documents as well.
Sadly this style of crime will mean that some people will be defrauded twice in a short period of time, which can cause massive financial heartache and a lot of stress. It is likely the same fraudsters who are carrying out both crimes, or the first gang of criminals selling on information about the victims to another crime group who will carry out the second form of fraud.
Andrew Reilly is a freelance writer with a focus on news stories and consumer interest articles. He has been writing professionally for 9 years but has been writing for as long as he can care to remember. When Andrew isn’t sat behind a laptop or researching a story, he will be found watching a gig or a game of football.