Beware of a national scam involving investment in rare earth metals, say police in Devon and Cornwall. The force has recently become aware of a fraud whereby following a ‘cold call’ victims are persuaded to invest in rare earth metal oxides. The investment potential is hugely exaggerated; or, it involves a worthless commodity.
The victim tends to be elderly. Contact is usually made by telephone. After pressurised selling, considerable amounts of personal savings are deposited into accounts in the hope of a future substantial return, which in fact never materialises. Nationally, the fraud totals millions of pounds, and the number of victims falls into thousands with five victims identified in Devon and Cornwall.
The investigation into this scam sits with The City of London Police but due to the national extent of the fraud with local identified victims the force’s Financial Investigation Team is warning the public to be aware.
Detective Sergeant Mark Newnham said: “The extent of this scam is huge and anyone could become a victim of persistent fraudsters.
“Although there are bone fide companies who deal legitimately in metal investments this particular fraud involves investment in very poor valued or worthless commodities. Genuine companies do not ‘cold call’ and use intimidating and persuasive tactics and I would urge anyone who is contacted out of the blue regarding such investments to think very carefully. Do not agree to invest on a whim without making basic checks into the company.”
If you think that you have been a victim of this fraud – contact Fraud Action on 0300 123 2040 or report online at [email protected].
Meanwhile an electronic message, sent to inboxes, claims to be from a sympathetic assassin who thinks that the recipient of the email has wrongly had a contract taken out against them. The fraudster offers to forgo his job in return for a large amount of money; he will then provide proof of who has taken out the ‘hit’ in return for either more cash.
Throughout the email the recipient is warned not to contact police or tell friends or family about the content of the message. DC Mark Aldridge of Lancashire Police said: “”In actual fact this email is simply a spin-off from other emails designed to scam the public out of their money. The police take these matters extremely seriously, however, the poor English used is indicative of the fact that this scam originates from overseas. This makes investigation extremely difficult due to the various jurisdictional issues. We are looking into the matter but if anybody receives such emails our advice is to simply block the sender and delete the email.”
And head of Lancashire County Council Trading Standards, Paul Noone, said: “These criminals are constantly coming up with new ideas to try and catch people out, but anyone who receives this scam should ignore it and not be taken in by its threatening nature.
“Scamnesty, the annual Lancashire Police and Trading Standards campaign, will run throughout next month to raise awareness of this type of fraud. The intelligence we receive through Scamnesty is very valuable in helping us to understand the scams that are out there and advise people to avoid them.
“The sad reality is that while scams are a massive problem, with some people being conned out of very large sums, only one in 20 victims report them. This makes it very difficult to target prevention and take action against those responsible.”
