The Movie
A movie called The Hustle was released last year starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson. Their characters are scam artists who team up to take down men who have wronged them. This movie is the latest comedy/light entertainment show that highlights the skill of a con artist (others include the Oceans 11 series and UK TV show Hustle starring Robert Vaughan). In each case the scam artists will meet “the mark” in order to persuade them to part with their money. The victims are usually portrayed as rich greedy people who deserved to be “fleeced”. However, in real life the victims of fraud are predominantly ordinary people who lose their life savings and they will rarely meet the fraudsters, who operate via e-mail or phone.
Real Life
We recently acted for a client who was scammed out of approximately £300,000. The Client was looking to invest their life savings and upon searching google came across, on appearance, the website for an international bank offering very impressive “guaranteed” returns. The Client completed a contact form online and within a few hours received a call from an employee of the bank (hereafter “the fraudster”). They exchanged information and the fraudster emailed further details including a document showing the returns on any potential investment. The e-mails appeared to be genuine from the bank with their correct logo and address in the signature block, as did the document. The Client decided to proceed cautiously and invested £50,000 at a time. For the first two/three months the Client received the promised returns and so invested more. However, after a few months the monthly returns ceased. The Client contacted the fraudster via e-mail and phone. He promised to look into it and that the payment was coming.
It was at this point we were contacted to provide some advice and assistance. The Client was still in contact with the fraudster. So with the Client’s help, we contrived to arrange a meeting with the fraudster with the view to investing more money. The aim was to then follow the fraudster in order to identify them. However, unsurprisingly the fraudster did not turn up. Prior to that, our investigations had revealed obvious clues which would raise red flags if any due diligence had been undertaken.
On the phone the fraudster came across as sophisticated, professional and very persuasive, like the characters in the aforementioned movies. This time the Client approached us too late to stop them losing their money. It should be noted that whilst these cases should be reported to the police, they often do not have the resources to investigate these frauds properly.
Fraudsters are very sophisticated and persuasive. Prior to sending any money always conduct some due diligence, such as:
Identify and view the genuine website of the Bank or financial institution.
Look at carefully at the spellings of the domain names.Compare contact details.Call the bank up using a general switchboard number and ask for the alleged employee.
For large sums of money always insist on a meeting at the branch or office of the financial institution.
Never click on any links in any e-mails sent to you if you are unsure of the origin.
IF you have any doubts DO NOT TRANSFER YOUR MONEY.
Finally, The TV series Hustle ended a few years ago and they finished their final episode with the well-known maxim: If it is too good to be true, it probably is!
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