Common Online Scams
Phishing is where fraudsters pretend to be a financial institution such as Barclays Bank in order to persuade you to enter your security details into a bogus website. Their aim is to obtain your security details and remove money from your accounts and their emails and websites are often very convincing.
We will never send you an unsolicited email asking for personal security information.
We take email security very seriously (see Our Website Security). But if you are at all concerned about receiving emails please choose not to use emails for sending us queries or receiving information from us such as Equity Research grade changes and Order Service updates. You will be offered the opportunity to either unsubscribe from any emails sent by us or you can choose ‘do not send’ when placing orders using our Order Service.
Please be on your guard against emails that request any of your security details. If you receive a suspicious email, please contact us.
Please note that you will receive an email from us should you select ‘Forgotten your password’ online. The email will have a unique link to a secure page where you will need to confirm characters from your memorable word and then be able to change your password online.
Additional income email scam
A current scam involves someone offering, via an email or website, to pay funds into your bank account on the understanding you then transfer them overseas. In return, you supposedly get a commission. Many of these scams involve the proceeds of fraud. Ignore the request and delete the email.
Lottery Prize email
This scam involves being contacted to advise you that you have won a substantial amount of money. You will be asked to send bank details and other personal information. These scenarios are not genuine and your personal information may be used in other types of fraud.
Boiler Room Scams
Boiler Room scams are scams where “companies” contact clients generally out of the blue either by post, email or telephone and offer them shares in a company at a supposedly heavily discounted price. They will often use hard sell tactics to persuade the client to buy the shares e.g creating a sense of urgency or using a persistent and aggressive style and this pressurised tactic is why they are referred to as Boiler room scams. The company that they are trying to sell may be listed on an illiquid market so the shares cannot be sold. Or they could be a small unquoted company that the broker claims is planning to list. In other cases the company itself may not exist or the share certificates delivered are fake.
The FSA have published a list of firms that they are aware operate in this manner:
In general the bulk of these firms operate overseas with hotspots being in Spain, Switzerland, Dubai, Japan, Bermuda and the US and are therefore outside the remit of the FSA. However these firms are likely to have a UK registered address and a name which suggests legitimacy.
Both inexperienced and experienced have been affected by this type of scam with a typical victim losing around £20,000.
Further information on boiler room scams can be obtained from the FSA.