Frauds - how do they do it?

[xoggoth]

Just had a pretty convincing call telling me that, several months back, my tiny business sponsored a scheme to provide books to schools to prevent drug abuse. It's a total scam as here:

Publication fraud | Action Fraud

Said I had no recollection of doing so and, since they did not ask me for any bank details, I assume I will get a fake invoice later.

But surely anyone with enough sense to run a business would check online before they paid anything, so how can it work? Same with those people who claim a bank account has been compromised and send somebody to collect a card. It only takes one savvy person to pretend to agree and then call the police and they'll get caught.

Some scams are a mystery.

[Lockhouse]

I get one of these calls per month. I go along with it for a bit pretending then I ask for their registered charity number so I can claim any tax back. Normally they hang up at that point but if not I just continue winding them up until I'm bored of playing along. Brightens up an otherwise boring day.

[billybiro]

Just had a pretty convincing call telling me that, several months back, my tiny business sponsored a scheme to provide books to schools to prevent drug abuse. It's a total scam as here:

Publication fraud | Action Fraud

Said I had no recollection of doing so and, since they did not ask me for any bank details, I assume I will get a fake invoice later.

But surely anyone with enough sense to run a business would check online before they paid anything, so how can it work? Same with those people who claim a bank account has been compromised and send somebody to collect a card. It only takes one savvy person to pretend to agree and then call the police and they'll get caught.

Some scams are a mystery.

Remember the old quote from George Carlin:

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

They work because for every "savvy person" you have dozens of "idiots". Also, the fraudsters keep moving around, changing their company name etc. so they're a bit of a moving target for the police to catch, even when they're aware of them.

[vetran]

They ask if you voted remain if you say yes then they carry on..

[SueEllen]

They ask if you voted remain if you say yes then they carry on..

They target older people as they are more trusting of people and more confused by technology.

[SlipTheJab]

They target older people as they are more trusting of people and more confused by technology.

Quick someone warn NLUK!

[northernladuk]

Quick someone warn NLUK!

Fuunnneeeeee.

I'm too busy for this. I've won a shed load of Tesco and Amazon vouchers. Just need to log in to this web page to claim them. Bargain.

[Safe Collections]

Just had a pretty convincing call telling me that, several months back, my tiny business sponsored a scheme to provide books to schools to prevent drug abuse. It's a total scam as here:

Publication fraud | Action Fraud

Said I had no recollection of doing so and, since they did not ask me for any bank details, I assume I will get a fake invoice later.

But surely anyone with enough sense to run a business would check online before they paid anything, so how can it work? Same with those people who claim a bank account has been compromised and send somebody to collect a card. It only takes one savvy person to pretend to agree and then call the police and they'll get caught.

Some scams are a mystery.

They use the same kind of high pressure mechanisms most scammers use, threats, blackmail, bogus invoices, fake "debt collectors" and the like but with the added bonus that if you appear to be running a semi-legitimate business getting the police to intervene is nigh on impossible even when people have been threatened with violence/arson.

Even when these companies are wound up in the public interest and the directors convicted of breaches of the law, the chances or receiving a custodial sentence for the offence is negligible.

The Insolvency Service no doubt do the best they can, but some of the owners of these companies have been running the same scam for 10+ years.

[SimonMac]

Its a numbers game, while some of them are very sophisticated, I would imagine naivety plays its part, you call 1,000 people and if one of them coughs up they go back and target them for more

Remember the old quote from George Carlin:

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize 52% of them are stupider than that."

FTFY