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Beware of these Scams!

1. Criminal cashback

This clever trick relies on the fact that it usually takes five days or more before cheques deposited in UK bank accounts are 'bounced' - that is, rejected, dishonoured or returned unpaid.

Let's say that you decide to sell something (for example, a car), so you place an advertisement online or in your local newspaper. Someone who appears to be a genuine buyer then sends you a cheque or banker's draft for a sum which is considerably more than your asking price. The phoney buyer asks you to bank this cheque and then send him/her the excess by money transfer. The catch is that your money transfer takes effect immediately and is irreversible, but the fake cheque might take weeks to bounce. Thus, you end up seriously out of pocket with nowhere to turn to.

For more advice on criminal cashback, read this Fraud Alert from the Metropolitan Police.

2. Home-working scams

One universal feature of home-working scams is that they all promise a high income for very little effort, usually by running a business from home. Although there are legitimate multi-level or networking marketing businesses (such as utilities company Utility Warehouse and cleaning-products firms Amway and Kleeneze), the vast majority of these home-working 'opportunities' promise a great deal more than they deliver. Some are outright frauds and deliver absolutely nothing - you send off your joining fee and never hear from them again. Others promise high wages for menial work such as stuffing envelopes, but fail to pay out anything like the amounts pledged, if anything at all.

If you're thinking about starting your own business, read this Fraud Alert from the Metropolitan Police.

3. Fake invoices and data-protection services

These scams are usually aimed at businesses and corporations, but we should all keep an eye out for them. With the 'fake invoice' trick, a scammer sends out thousands of bogus invoices for modest amounts, say, £50 for print supplies. Although most accountants and book-keepers will recognise these bogus invoices for what they are, a few will slip through the net and be paid.

Another variant on this theme is the dodgy data-protection or company-registration swindle. This attempts to rip-off businesses by demanding money for allegedly 'compulsory' registration under 'new' data-protection laws, or by inviting businesses to advertise in bogus company directories. As the owner of a small business, I've had a few of these letters in my time along with bogus demands for very high fees to re-register internet domain names implying that they will be 'lost' if a remittance is not sent immediately. These should also be ignored.

4. Premium-rate telephone rip-offs

Personally, I have a real aversion to calling non-geographic numbers, so I stick to calling freephone numbers (0800 and 0808) and UK numbers which start with '01' or '02'. Nevertheless, premium-rate numbers flourish, offering everything from horoscopes to adult entertainment to big prizes - at a cost of up to £1.50 a minute for 090 numbers.

If I were running the country, I would move quickly to ban those awful competitions and scratchcards which charge upwards of £1 as an entry fee. Recently, the news has been full of revelations about the shady (and downright fraudulent) practices of those production companies which make TV quiz shows and run phone-in voting lines. Frankly, your chance of winning is miniscule, but you could lose a fortune if you get hooked on these services. Avoid at all costs!

5. Advance-fee frauds and fake lotteries

Advance-fee fraud (also known as the Nigerian or 419 scam) works like this: you are promised a massive pay-off, usually millions of pounds, in return for a modest one-off fee or the use of your bank account. Usually, the conmen explain that this fee will be used to bribe corrupt officials, or to meet bogus customs duties or taxes.

Of course, what really happens is, at the first available opportunity, fraudsters will steal your life savings or empty your bank account. All the while, they will dangle the promise of a fortune there for the taking. Another variation on this theme is the fake lottery. Ask yourself, how can you possibly win a foreign lottery for which you've never even bought a ticket?

6. Boiler rooms

Watch out for calls from convincing salespeople urging you to invest in little-known stocks and shares. On almost every occasion, these calls come from boiler rooms which dump worthless or fictional shares on unsuspecting victims. That hot stock promising huge returns is sure to wipe out your savings, so don't take the bait - hang up immediately.

By the many several investors have been cold-called recently with offers to buy their small-company shares at vastly inflated prices. The catch is that they have to pay a fee to access this 'exclusive buyout', so this is simply another variant of advance-fee fraud.

Only firms regulated by the Financial Services Authority can offer investment services to the British public. You can check a firm's registration here.

7. Phishing emails and calls

Watch out for emails which appear to have been sent to you by a financial firm of which you are a customer. The same goes for callers who claim to represent your bank or credit-card company. In most cases, these 'phishing' attempts are aimed at grabbing personal or financial details in order to defraud you. So, don't click on links in these emails; instead, delete them straight away. Also, if you're not sure about inward calls from your bank, call it back on the usual number. For more advice, visit the Bank Safe Online website.

8. Ponzi (pyramid or matrix) schemes

In 1920, a large number of Americans were conned by a now-infamous trickster called Charles Ponzi. Ponzi raked in millions from investors who were taken in by his promise to turn $100 into $150 in 45 days by trading in hoax 'postal coupons'. In reality, Ponzi used contributions from new investors to fund the fake returns to previous investors.

Although they have been outlawed, Brits are still being duped by similar pyramid schemes which promise large rewards for recruiting more suckers. Ignore the hype and avoid all proposals which rely solely on recruitment or promote recruitment as the primary method (above selling a product or service) to generate returns.

9. Sham charities

Some areas are particular targets for charity collectors, both genuine and fake. Although I dislike the 'chuggers' (charity muggers) which confront me in the high street, I absolutely detest for-profit businesses which pose as registered charities. If a leaflet comes through your door asking for unwanted goods, check to see if the firm is a registered charity. If it isn't, then most - if not all - of your money will end up lining some rogue's pockets, instead of benefiting good causes. For more advice on this scam, read this warning from the Charity Commission.

Finally, these signs will help you to watch out for scams which prey on greed and ignorance:

1. They arrive via unsolicited emails, faxes, letters or telephone calls.

2. They ask you for money before you can claim your windfall/prize/inheritance.

3. They boast of guaranteed returns well in excess of 6% a year (the interest rate paid by a top savings account).

4. They don't explain precisely how these fantastic returns are created.

5. They rely on sucking in progressively more people in order to pay out and keep going.

6. They claim secret 'insider' knowledge (this is always the case for gambling and boiler-room scams).

7. They promise huge rewards in a short time with little effort (particularly home-working scams).

So, remember: guarantees of easy money are nothing but empty promises, and are sure to be phoney. Keep your wits about you at all times!

This information provided by The Motley Fool

Domain Name Registration Scam

If you receive a letter from 'Domain Registry of America' headed 'Domain Name Expiration Notice' do not respond. This is a scam and your domain name is NOT at risk. It is similar to the fraud operated by companies called 'Domain Registry Services (Cambridge)', 'Dot Biz Domain Renewal' and 'EU Registry Services'

These people scan the 'whois' information held publicly about ownership of domain names and target people whose domain names are due for renewal within the next month. Any monies paid to them are totally lost - your domain name will not be renewed, you'll still need to renew with your current registrar.

Hope no-one has fallen for this. Always check that your renewal advice comes from your service provider whatever your domain name. Communications received from any of the companies listed above should be treated extremely carefully, ignored or reported to the police.

'Advice' and 'Comparison' web sites

There are lots of web sites around these days that give useful advice, especially in the financial field and comparison sites for utilities and telecoms services.

You may have wondered how these sites make any money or how they are funded on the web and this was recently highlighted in features in The Independent and  the Sunday Telegraph. You should be aware that whenever you use one of these sites and click through to a recommended supplier and then go on to purchase something or switch your utilities supplier etc. The site that you went through gets paid. The fees concerned for 'introducing' your custom in this way vary from around £10 up to £100 averaging around £30 every time someone uses their site as a route to somewhere else.

So what? Does it matter? Well yes it does, because the advice you are being given is not impartial, these sites only concern themselves with providers who will pay them a commission and those who don't will not get recommended or listed in the comparison tables. It doesn't matter what you choose from their site, they always get paid. Another aspect of this is that some of these sites tend to 'find fault' with the services provided by companies who won't pay them a commission or play them down in other ways.

The trouble is, especially with comparison sites, that the cheaper providers don't pay commissions but pass these marketing cost savings on to their customers so you're unlikely to find the cheapest providers of a service on these advice and comparison sites.

Having said all that however, there are some sites that are impartial. These tend to carry clear banner advertising links (for which they do get paid) rather than embedded text links or links through comparison tables. Alternatively they clearly identify 'preferred' or 'sponsor' providers.

It's a jungle out there on the web!

Google Searches

You may be surprised to learn that when you search for something on Google you will not necessarily find 'everything' that you are looking for.

What comes up on a Google search depends on a number of things.

The design of the website - not what it looks like but hw it has been engineered specifically to be found on Google - is key, it's called 'Search Engine Optimisation' what you fund may not be what you are looking for - it may be what the owners of the various web sites want you to find.

Secondly Google themselves 'censor' the content that appears in their searches. Google can arbitrarily remove any website from their search engine for any reason whatsoever. This isn't just about 'offensive' sites containing violence or pornography etc. it's about anything, even if the person reviewing the site doesn't fancy the colour scheme or thinks the site is 'boring'. Websites are reviewed manually and it takes a long long time for them to get around to some sites, others may disappear from view quite quickly.

Like comparison sites Google is not a public service - they are there to make money and they do this by selling advertising on their search pages. The entry at the top of the page and those down the right hand side are what is known as PPC (Pay Per Click) ads - when you click on one of those entries the advertiser who owns that website is charged a fee. Once again this can seriously distort your search as what comes up when you search on a specific keyword may have absolutely nothing to do with what you want to find.

Google have absolute control of what appears on their site - they can make whole companies and even countries 'disappear' if they decide they don't 'like' them or are obliged (as they were in China) to exclude information from searches. What you see on Google is not 'everything' or 'the world' or even the 'truth' - it's just what Google want you to see.

Google is not the definitive source of all information so if you can't find what you are looking for try the other search engines.

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