Fake online jobs, flats and festival tickets are on the increase as scammers target consumers' money-saving ethos
The economic downturn is pushing consumers into the hands of con merchants and rogue traders who have "never had it so good", Citizens Advice warned this week.
The national charity says the current economic conditions have led to an unprecedented boom in scams that exploit people's need to save money on bills, increase their income, and find work and affordable housing. It says there is a growing problem with unscrupulous employers advertising fake "jobs" that require fees to be paid in advance. Increasingly, it adds, "phantom flats" are offered to would-be tenants, who are then asked to prove they can pay the rent by transferring money to the landlord: money they never see again. It also warns that some money transfer services and classified ad websites can sometimes be channels for fraud.
The warning chimes with Guardian Money's postbag, which is increasingly seeing complaints about bogus websites offering desirable products such as cameras at low prices. Fraudsters set up the sites, trade for a short time and then disappear with the cash. If a camera or pair of designer jeans looks too cheap, there is usually a reason why, say police.
Meanwhile, as the summer music festival season gets underway, fans are being urged to be on their guard against sophisticated online rip-offs run by organised gangs of "cyber criminals", in which they are duped into buying fake or non-existent tickets.
Experts at Get Safe Online, a government-backed initiative, are warning that the problem will get worse as the wave of events provides rich pickings for the fraudsters. More than one in 10 people (or their friends and family) say they have already been a victim of an online ticketing scam.
According to Get Safe Online, criminals are increasing efforts to dupe consumers into visiting fake ticket websites. They are passing off their operations as supposedly genuine businesses, and are often willing to make significant investments for high returns. For example, they will often pay for search advertising (such as Google AdWords) so their fake sites appear at the top of event search results. And they even enlist professional web designers so that their sites appear genuine.
One method used by scammers is targeting band websites, forums and social networking sites. Posts will be displayed from "fans" claiming they have bought tickets from a certain site and encouraging those not yet successful in getting theirs to visit it. More consumers are then driven to the fake site.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jun/24/cyber-fraudsters-economic-downturn
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