Prize scams could cost you a fortune

No matter what great investment or cash bonanza is on offer, if you can't believe your luck, there's usually a good reason why, writes Laura Slattery

Congratulations. You have won a lottery that you may not remember entering. Ring this premium rate phone line to collect your prize, which is guaranteed!

You have also been invited to participate in a one-time-only investment opportunity: just give us your credit card details and we will send you all kinds of stuff you never knew you needed - free!

"Not a day goes by without me being told I have won a lottery somewhere," says Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI) and luckiest man alive.

"The majority of people instantly delete the e-mail," he says. Nevertheless, the association regularly receives calls from people asking if it is possible that their strange lottery fortune is legitimate. "They already know the answer," says Jewell.

None of us ever believe we will be taken in by dodgy get-rich-quick schemes, where the only people who do get rich are the fast, uncontactable fraudsters behind the scheme.

But as consumers wise up to the more basic and obviously too-good-to-be-true scams, the fraudsters have upped their game, employing ever more intricate ways of depriving people of money.

Last week the CAI issued a warning over a pyramid-style scam operating in Co Meath.

At least one person was reported to have lost €5,000 to the People in Profit System (Pips) scheme, under which investors are asked to loan the company a sum of money for 180 days.

Under the scheme, which has been the subject of warnings in Australia and the US, investors supposedly receive a high daily rate of interest on the loan. But while investors may get some initial returns on their money, pretty soon this dries up and their entire investment disappears.

"What I thought was interesting about the Pips scheme was that it was a new variation on a pyramid scheme in that it specified a time limit. They said we just need the money for 180 days," says Jewell.

"If you put it that way to a consumer, it seems more appealing and more feasible to hand over money."

Pyramid schemes, where money lured from new recruits is used to pay early investors until the whole thing collapses, are on the wane, Jewell believes. But those that do exist have all the hallmarks of a professional operation.

"The suggestion that you can watch your money grow online - that's a classic example of how to keep people in line," he says.

Like typical card game hustlers, the people operating the scheme will always let their victims win a few rounds.

They also lull the unsuspecting into a false sense of security by recruiting via word of mouth: people will always trust friends or people from their locality more than they will some random salesperson who has parachuted in.

"It is a very sophisticated type of approach to defrauding a consumer. It is hard sometimes not to be taken in," says Jewell.

Some of the more successful frauds aren't about getting rich quick. Instead, highly slick salesforces hold conferences to market their wares to small business owners, who will be offered special "on the day" discounts. But the companies are bogus and the products - vague web design services or customer relationship management (CRM) software - are never delivered.

Other fraudsters confuse consumers by pretending to be on the side of good.

For example, most online banking and credit card users are familiar with the phenomenon of fake e-mails purporting to be from their bank or credit card provider imploring them to enter details such as their personal identification numbers (Pins) online, sometimes by asking them to follow a link to a mocked up version of the bank's website.

This type of internet fraud is known as phishing and is now so established that the term last week entered the Oxford English Dictionary.

What the phishing merchants do is send e-mails allegedly from the bank's anti-fraud department, warning consumers that if they don't confirm their details their accounts will be frozen.

Similarly, rip-off holiday clubs sold in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands have long been the subject of warnings from consumer bodies such as the European Consumer Centre (ECC) Dublin.

The centre's latest warning involves a company called International Holidayway Marketing, which contacts people who have already lost money to the clubs and tells them they can recover it for them.

But holiday club members who travelled to Tenerife in the hope of receiving legal advice from the company on how to go about securing a refund was instead merely pressured to re-invest in a new property development.

Since its establishment in May 2003, the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority's (Ifsra) consumer helpline has received 90 calls relating to various types of alleged fraudulent activity.

According to a spokeswoman, the scams reported include fake lotteries, dodgy e-mails, holiday offers that don't materialise once money has exchanged hands and "boiler room" operations.

The calls have given rise to nine warning notices advising consumers to steer clear of overseas-based firms that are not authorised to carry out investment services here.

A full archive of warning notices is available on the financial regulator's website, at www.itsyourmoney.ie.

A Google search of the company name can also easily reveal if the company has stung consumers elsewhere around the world, while www.askaboutmoney.com's forum on Good Deals, Bad Deals and Consumer Issues gives information on many of the scams being used to mug Irish consumers.

Many swindlers regularly change the name of their company as they move on to new targets, so recognising the names is not enough. Consumers need to recognise the modus operandi, too.

Boiler Rooms: Beware of strangers bearing gifts is a factsheet published by the financial regulator. It outlines some of the high-pressure sales tactics used by boiler rooms, the term used for unauthorised, unscrupulous investment companies that try to flog worthless or extremely high-risk shares, foreign currency or other "investments".

Salespeople from boiler room companies often make persistent phone calls out of the blue at consumers' homes or workplaces.

The company's name may be similar to a well-known or legitimate organisation and the false name given by the caller may sound Irish or be similar to the consumer's.

The firm's location is usually exotic, for example, the Bahamas or Hong Kong. Other firms appear to be based in the US or Canada, but may just have a serviced office that re-routes calls, faxes and e-mails offshore.

Many bogus firms only give mobile phone contact numbers. Any firm doing this should immediately raise suspicions, the regulator says.

The hard sell involves promising spectacular returns, giving assurances that the investment is a sure thing and insisting that the consumer will lose out if they don't sign up.

The shares being touted are usually not quoted on a recognised stock exchange.

Consumers who agree to invest will either be asked to wire payment to a foreign or offshore account or asked to give their bank details, or both.

They then find it difficult to obtain their share certificates or contact the company when they want to sell their shares or have concerns about their investment. As with pyramid schemes, an initial windfall is usually not a legitimate gain but a trick used to encourage consumers into investing larger amounts.

"We would always advise consumers to check if the firm is authorised," says a spokeswoman for the financial regulator.

"If they're not, then the likelihood is there is no compensation scheme available to the investors."

Many people view investment in shares as a risky game even when they are being sold by reputable, authorised companies and thus will be quick to hang up.

Overseas property, on the other hand, is frequently lapped up by the Irish as the perfect summer getaway-cum-investment opportunity. Most property investment firms are unregulated and thus don't technicallyfall within the financial regulator's remit.

Nevertheless, it is planning an information campaign for the autumn to warn consumers of the dangers of being too trusting and too willing to get carried away at Sunday afternoon hotel expos.

No matter what great investment or cash prize is on offer, if you can't believe your luck, there's usually a very good reason why.