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Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

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TAXMAN
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Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by TAXMAN »

A friend of my parents was recently given joint power of attorney (along with a solicitor) for a friend of his in his late 70s who has no close relatives. It had recently become apparent that the friend was not quite 'with it' anymore e.g. forgetting appointments etc.

After looking into his finances to ensure that necessary bills were paid on time, it came to light that he seems to have been a victim of a number of financial scams mainly perpetrated via cold calls for investments in companies outside of the UK. The main loss is for a figure of over £100,000 to New Millenium Medical (PTE Equity) back in 2006 - quick internet searches show a number of scam warnings about this company. (Personally I'm shocked the bank didn't raise queries when he transferred the money). There are a few other investments as well which appear to be just scams and none appear to be protected by the FSA so every likelihood he has lost almost all his savings to overseas scam artists simply because he was not in a mental state to fully appreciate what he was being asked to do. I assume once one cold call was successful at relieving him from his money he would have got more phone calls offering 'unique investment opportunities'.

So, if you have any elderly friends or relatives who don't seem to be 100% on the ball anymore, let this serve as a word of warning.

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Raisin
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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Raisin »

Despicable but sadly easy pickings for the scammers.

I worry about all the 'silver surfers' when I look through my spam box and see all the scams that are obvious to you and me but maybe not to them.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by murf »

Raisin wrote:I worry about all the 'silver surfers' when I look through my spam box and see all the scams that are obvious to you and me but maybe not to them.
True - but then again they may have more of a need for viagra than i do.....

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Pincher »

Would PoA help in this situation? I am not sure - as the person still has the right to use their account as far as I am aware. :? You might be able to get the bank to agree on a limit of transaction size unless double-authorised I guess.

Despicable is not strong enough language for it, but wouldn't want to fall foul of the filter.

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jimmy ching
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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by jimmy ching »

Financial advisers and scams go hand in hand and you don't have to be old to fall for it. Ask the RBS lot :lol:

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TAXMAN
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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by TAXMAN »

Useful anti-scam links:

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/scamnesty" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.thinkjessica.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by DrBunker »

jimmy ching wrote:Financial advisers and scams go hand in hand and you don't have to be old to fall for it. Ask the RBS lot :lol:
There is a massive difference between this sort of scam and, say, the endowment 'crisis' advisers were heavily criticised for.

It's very easy for the media to stick us all in the same bag but the people screwed by banks are more sophisticated investors and there are safeguards and regulators and compensation schemes in place. The evil people who sign up ignorant or mentally incapacitated people to boiler-room schemes where there is no protection and the sales are massively pressurised are so far away from financial advisers it's untrue.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Stick »

jimmy ching wrote:Financial advisers and scams go hand in hand

so offensive :x

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by unc.si »

Stick wrote:
jimmy ching wrote:Financial advisers and scams go hand in hand

so offensive :x
Agreed

the scammers would be outraged if they saw that.


:wink:

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Stick »

where's that report button?

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by SUZYKINS »

Does that mean we will have to keep an eye on Pa with his monthly Dreamteam Win :shock:

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Vid »

Old thread resurrected ......

Not sure if this is a scam or not but my cynicism says it is -

told this morning that the mother in law (78) was cold called on Friday and had a home security system (!) installed on Saturday and for £4k she has nothing more to pay for 10 years!!!!!

Anybody with any experience of these things? Actually having a system installed legit or the scam side of it?

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Zimmerman »

During my mrs' work, she came across a client who was relieved of a similar amount (might have been around £3k) for a burglar alarm system.

Despite the guy having learning difficulties, it was a 'legit' transaction :(
Sure she fought it, but cant remember what came of it.

If he (or the MiL) are deemed to be able to make decisions, it will be hard to argue otherwise i.e. its no different to you or I paying over the odds for something rather than shopping around for it cheaper.

On the plus side for your MiL - i highly doubt they'll be back after 10 years for further payments.


One for Watchdog though… unscrupulous salesman happy to rip some old dear off!

How these fckuers sleep at night is a mystery!

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by paisleypark »

Thanks for looking out for me guys but I still need some extra advice.
We are still getting unsolicited phone calls at all hours - it was 7.45am this morning - trying to sort out my computer.
They claim to be Microsoft but when they ask me what I can see on my screen and I describe a scene from a porn movie I once happened to glance at on a friends pc they get quite irritable.
The number this morning was 00501 and previously an international no.
I am with TPS but nothing stops these vultures preying on the elderly and vulnerable.

I just hope you young guys out there can offer some suggestions.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by t.gridley »

paisleypark wrote:Thanks for looking out for me guys but I still need some extra advice.
We are still getting unsolicited phone calls at all hours - it was 7.45am this morning - trying to sort out my computer.
They claim to be Microsoft but when they ask me what I can see on my screen and I describe a scene from a porn movie I once happened to glance at on a friends pc they get quite irritable.
The number this morning was 00501 and previously an international no.
I am with TPS but nothing stops these vultures preying on the elderly and vulnerable.

I just hope you young guys out there can offer some suggestions.
A referees whistle down the phone appears to stop these windows callers, the last one I had, told me "f you" after the blast, did not phone back though.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Surprised »

String them along and waste their time. They get very annoyed and abusive.
I ask them to tell me my IP address and it throws them.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by DrBunker »

My M-i-L called the other day about this as she had one of these calls, agreed to let them onto her PC and then they locked it and said it needed further cleaning for which they'd need payment to do. She's not even 60 yet and I couldn't believe ppl would fall for this sort of thing. Apparently they were very convincing about being part of AVG. :roll:

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by pottster »

It's not just scammers ripping off the elderly. Lloyds Bank are quite happy to lock thousands of pounds (in this case 30K) of an 81 years old (with cancer) savings in a more or less zero rate ISA that can't be touched for 2 years.

Must have been high fives allround in the bank that day - the tw@ts!

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Striker »

Surprised wrote:String them along and waste their time. They get very annoyed and abusive.
I ask them to tell me my IP address and it throws them.
My response depends on the time of day, how busy I am, my mood etc.

This morning it was a cheery two word - "piss off".

But on at least one occasion, I was a gullible old fool who was grateful for their call and strung them along for over 15 minutes.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by forestfan »

pottster wrote:It's not just scammers ripping off the elderly. Lloyds Bank are quite happy to lock thousands of pounds (in this case 30K) of an 81 years old (with cancer) savings in a more or less zero rate ISA that can't be touched for 2 years.

Must have been high fives allround in the bank that day - the tw@ts!
Surely all they would lose by cashing in early is the interest, which you say is the square root of bigger all anyway? :?

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by liquidfootball2 »

paisleypark wrote:Thanks for looking out for me guys but I still need some extra advice.
We are still getting unsolicited phone calls at all hours - it was 7.45am this morning - trying to sort out my computer.
They claim to be Microsoft but when they ask me what I can see on my screen and I describe a scene from a porn movie I once happened to glance at on a friends pc they get quite irritable.
The number this morning was 00501 and previously an international no.
I am with TPS but nothing stops these vultures preying on the elderly and vulnerable.

I just hope you young guys out there can offer some suggestions.
A lot of digital cordless phones on the market have a call barring facility. We have a Panasonic model and about thirty nuisance numbers stored which we just keep adding to. TPS is not very effective now and i'm afraid you may continue to have trouble.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by murf »

Get one with a display then ignore 0845, 'withheld', 'international' and 01792 (Swansea).

In fact we ignore everything we don't recognise and let the machine get it. Most cut off as soon as the message starts.

If I've got a missed call on my mobile then a quick type into google will usually tell you it is a known phone scammer/marketer.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by unc.si. »

forestfan wrote:
pottster wrote:It's not just scammers ripping off the elderly. Lloyds Bank are quite happy to lock thousands of pounds (in this case 30K) of an 81 years old (with cancer) savings in a more or less zero rate ISA that can't be touched for 2 years.

Must have been high fives allround in the bank that day - the tw@ts!
Surely all they would lose by cashing in early is the interest, which you say is the square root of bigger all anyway? :?
Thought the same - just take it out and put it somewhere better.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by unc.si. »

Striker wrote:
Surprised wrote:String them along and waste their time. They get very annoyed and abusive.
I ask them to tell me my IP address and it throws them.
My response depends on the time of day, how busy I am, my mood etc.

This morning it was a cheery two word - "piss off".

But on at least one occasion, I was a gullible old fool who was grateful for their call and strung them along for over 15 minutes.
:lol:

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Bramernic »

Striker wrote:
Surprised wrote:String them along and waste their time. They get very annoyed and abusive.
I ask them to tell me my IP address and it throws them.
My response depends on the time of day, how busy I am, my mood etc.

This morning it was a cheery two word - "piss off".

But on at least one occasion, I was a gullible old fool who was grateful for their call and strung them along for over 15 minutes.
You've got a way to go yet ... http://blog.drsolly.com/2014/05/technic ... -scam.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by Zimmerman »

I like engaging them… telling them im just switching it on etc.

drawing it out for 10 minutes and feigning bumbling about.

You can normally string them along for a bit by asking them if they want you to get your bank card.



EDIT: I see Striker likes to play along too :)


Maybe we should start a little side game ;)

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by jimmy ching »

Thanks lads, I'm going to give this a go. :D

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by pottster »

forestfan wrote:
pottster wrote:It's not just scammers ripping off the elderly. Lloyds Bank are quite happy to lock thousands of pounds (in this case 30K) of an 81 years old (with cancer) savings in a more or less zero rate ISA that can't be touched for 2 years.

Must have been high fives allround in the bank that day - the tw@ts!
Surely all they would lose by cashing in early is the interest, which you say is the square root of bigger all anyway? :?
Yes in terms of financial gain the elderly person in this case has nothing much to loose but they think differently about stuff like this and 'ooh I can't touch that as I'll loose out' - £30k is a lot of money for a Bank to have their mits on knowing the old person is very very unlikley to touch it and is getting naff all return on it.

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Re: Warning - Financial Scams on UK Elderly

Post by murf »

So they aren't locked in then.....

Just investing in a low return product, like 99% of bank savings accounts....

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