Are you a ScamSmart investor?

Avoid scams

There has been a significant increase in the use of emails, texts and social media for keeping clients in touch with their finances and investments and this has led to an increase in criminal activity by investment scammers.

Most recently investment scammers are targeting consumers looking for investments online. You should seriously consider seeking financial advice or guidance before investing, and make sure that any firm you deal with is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Never take investment advice from the company that contacted you, as this may be part of the scam.

The FCA ScamSmart campaign brings together a range of resources and information to help you to avoid scams. We urge all clients to access the FCA’s campaign in order to protect themselves and their family. You can also keep updated with the latest ScamSmart news on Facebook (#fcascamsmart).

We’ve summarised ScamSmart’s four main steps to avoiding scams below.

Be a ScamSmart investor:
Step 1: Reject unexpected offers

If you are contacted out of the blue, and/or the offer seems too good to be true, it is probably a scam.

Step 3: Don’t be rushed or pressured

Take your time to make all the checks you need regardless of any high pressure selling tactics – as the saying goes, “It’s better to be safe than sorry”.

Step 4: Seek advice

Mattioli Woods offers a comprehensive advisory and investment service, details of which can be found here. Even if you do not currently have an advisory relationship, should you need to discuss your wealth management strategy or investments, please email us at info@mattioliwoods.com. You can also find free public guidance through organisations such as the Pensions Advisory ServicePension Wise and the Money Advice Service.

What to do if you think you have been scammed
  • Report to the FCA – you can report an unauthorised firm or scam to the FCA by contacting the Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768 or using the reporting form.
  • Report to Action Fraud online or by calling 0300 123 2040.
  • If you’ve agreed to transfer your pension and now suspect a scam, contact Mattioli Woods straight away.
  • If you have already invested in a scam, fraudsters are likely to target you again or sell your details to other criminals. The follow-up scam may be completely separate or related to the previous fraud, such as an offer to get your money back or to buy back the investment after you pay a fee.

ScamSmart is a Financial Conduct Authority campaign, you can learn more here.

Resources

Investment Scams

Try the FCA’s scamsmart game to see if you can spot the signs of a scam.
 

Pension Scams

The FCA has devised a quiz to help pension savers test if they could spot a scam.
Test yourself with the pensions scam test.


More tools:

 

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