Beware of a very nasty scam that I’ve recently experienced. If you are a victim make sure you report it to ActionFraud (www.actionfraud.police.uk or phone 0300 123 2040)

The company calls asking to speak to a particular person and they introduce themselves using a very Anglo-Saxon name like ‘Paul Smith’ or ‘Shane Blake’ but they have quite broad Indian accents. They also say they are calling from a law firm, in my case they used the firm ‘Allen & Overy’. Once they confirm they are speaking to the correct person they then use a very serious tone to inform you that a legal claim has been filed against you by a company, in my case this was ‘QuickCash’. They also mention terms like ‘Affidavit’ – all very intimidating. I never found out what the claim was but I guess it would have been for some ludicrous amount of money. I have since discovered that the company have some very aggressive approaches including threatening to send people around to your house if you don’t comply with their demands.

The call also comes from a London number currently 02036271571 – it changes. I actually rang them on this number and it definitely goes back to their call centre probably somewhere in India or thereabouts as I heard someone say my name before I had even mentioned it so they can see and recognised my phone number.

For most people the scam is obvious but there are a lot of vulnerable people who won’t so it is important this scam is shut down asap.

If you are contacted by these people get as much information about them as you possibly can – I leave it to your imagination but bear in mind that these people are guilty of fraud and the police are very interested in catching them and shutting them down. The company is protected by communications technology ie they look like they are calling you from a London number but there is no certainty that is where they are located. The reason why I called them was that the original call quality was abysmal and they has the cheek to ask me to call back (and I did!!) I think the call quality was bad because it was routed over a dodgy international connection but that’s all conjecture.

Once you do have some information just calmly say that you know that they are a scam and very calmly put down the phone – under no circumstances get aggressive because this is exactly what they want and you are guaranteed to get further calls to wear you down. Telling them that you know they are a scam is actually playing them at their own game!!

Make sure you have the number they called from (use 1471 on your phone) and a description of your experience with them – it is very much up to you how far you let them progress with their script until you terminate the call. Then to help get these people stopped contact the ActionFraud which is the central site used by all the UK police forces to coordinate information gathered about these sorts of scams. You can go to the website at http://www.actionfraud.police.uk or ring 0300 123 2040 and submit a report – they are very appreciative of the information.

By the way there is no point going to the Telephone Preference Service (www.tpsonline.org.uk/) because they don’t deal with scams and because of the way the scammers are using telecommunication technology it is not possible to block the number. You could however get your telephone provider to block the number on your telephone account – no idea what this would cost.

Please spread the word……