You don’t have to be stupid to fall for a scam

“But before writing them off as something only stupid people fall for, consider that one in 20 lost money to a scam last year.”
So one in twenty of the population are stupid. What’s your point?
“And we’re all potential victims.” No we are not, just the one in twenty stupid people.

I agree that there are some sneaky marketing practices used by banks, insurance companies, even supermarkets, but there’s usually some small print where they come clean. The scams referred to by Nick are those where you get nothing for your money, basically you voluntarily submit to theft.

Considering that much more than 5% of the population at large might be considered “stupid” (believe me, I’ve worked at an exams board), the Which? community excepted of course, then the statistic that 5% have been victims of scams is actually not that bad. It’s true that you don’t have to be stupid to be scammed, but even if you are it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be. A bit of common sense is enough to protect yourself, no need for intelligence. The basic defence points are:

1. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Be wary of emails out of the blue from people you don’t know, no matter how much money is involved. Nobody gives money away to strangers, not even Bill Gates.
3. If you haven’t entered a competition, you can’t have won it, duh!
4. Be wary of emails starting “Dear valued Client”
5. HMRC don’t send emails inviting people to claim a refund
6. The internet is no different from any other market place, there have been rogues and thieves for a lot longer than it has existed. Even the Romans had a helpful phrase: Caveat emptor – buyer beware!

That should do for starters, I’m sure other correspondents will add to the list.

I deal with victims of these scams on a daily basis and believe me the biggest problems at the moment surround Romance scams, the problem is massive and is netting the scammers (mostly West Africans predominantly Nigerians) massive amounts of money. The average amount lost of people I deal with is around £30K some lose considerably more. The next big problem is the inheritance scam it has been around for donkeys years but still people are falling for it. I have one person who has lost £250K so far and I say so far as they still don’t appear to accept that they are a victim after months of me telling them they are. They are happy to keep sending funds to Nigeria just in case!!

Others I see are the old 419 ‘bank official whose found $28.3 million in an old account etc etc’, Clairvoyant scams, Spanish Lottery scams which is making something of a comeback, job opportunity scams, puppy dog scams, HMRC scam, and a new one on the block the DVLA scam.

Boiler room scams still pose a problem as do the land purchase scams and the list goes on.

It is easy to say that those who get caught must be stupid, but the majority of people I come into contact are far from stupid, but are vulnerable in different ways. Yes some have the onset of dementia, but many particularly in Romance scams are lonely people who desperately want companionship and lower their guard when someone strats saying all the right things they want to hear.

I have read posts on discussion boards from people who have been scammed after advertising an item for sale. A scammer then pretends to be interested in buying the item, and for whatever reason sends you a cheque for much higher than the asking price and asks you to send him back a cheque for the difference. Even though the “buyer’s” cheque has been in you bank account for four working days and shows up as a cleared balance, apparently these people can still stop the cheque up to ten days later, and the money gets taken out of your cleared bank balance! I don’t know how this can happen, but it has happened to many people. The scammer then enjoys the money you sent him for “the difference.”

People here are talking about “stupid” people falling for scams, but this is a case where you may have quite reasonably assumed that a cleared balance was a cleared balance. So it’s not stupidity, it’s lack of knowledge but it’s the banks’ fault for not warning us about this possibility.