Essex Equity Release become a victim of Scammers last week, unfortunately for the Scammer, Ron knew a bit too much for him!!
That’s not because he was obvious, but the Scam he chose to deploy was about an Unpaid County Court Judgement, & this “Court Official” was giving me “fair warning” that Bailiffs would be arriving with half hour (this was at to collect £3.5K, or Goods to the Value, or, I could pay him £2K now, & he would call them off
Needless to say, I would never owe anybody any money, & if a disputed account would be very happy to go thru the Legal Process to challenge (and Win!!), & of course as an Authorised Debt Counsellor, I’m very aware of how the system of Debt & its’ Collection works.
However, I have to say, he was very, very good at what he does! Well rehearsed, authoritative articulate, friendly, helpful, conferring legitimacy on the demand!!
The “art” of the approach is to keep up the pressure on the Victim, giving no time to take a step back & assimilate the info, giving a choice between a really dreadful outcome (Bailiffs + £3.5K) or something fairly dreadful £2K now), until the Victim just did what they were told in utter confusion.
So good in fact, he would have been a huge success if he got a proper job, instead of being a Scum Bag plaguing, terrifying & thieving from vulnerable people.
Needless to say, he didn’t win this one, & I’ve gleaned lots of info & modus operandi which has been passed on to the Fraud Squad to assist in their very difficult task of closing down these Vermin.
I understand that there are similar Scams re Inland Revenue, VAT, Utilities, amongst many, with the latest being 3 month Holidays for Mortgages, Credit Cards, Loans with Frozen Interest!!
Please understand & take notice that there is not a legitimate Firm, Company, Institute or Organisation in the UK that will request any Personal or Financial Information of any kind over the Telephone – Never, Ever!!
So, if you ever receive such a call, simply KEEP CALM, request his name, his position, the landline number of his organisation (not the Mobile Number he is calling from, that one will be thrown away tomorrow!), the Web Site Address, & Advise him that you will call him back at the earliest opportunity, probably tomorrow- No bona fide Firm will object-Then put the Phone down, & take it off the hook for an hour, he’ll move on to the next one
Treat them with the same contempt they gave you!
