The FCA has issued a warning that scammers are cloning the details of a genuine professional body to cheat the public.
Crooks are using a wide range of bogus email addresses and phone numbers to lure victims and have also been using the branding of the body.
The target of this latest attack by clone scammers is the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, a legitimate and long standing professional body with a history dating back to 1881.
In this latest attack, it appears that at least £16,000 has been lost to a bogus approach in just one region and there is evidence the scammers are targeting previous victims of financial scams.
Cloning or copying genuine websites and organisations is becoming a growing problem for the industry and the FCA with dozens of attacks occurring every week. Many financial providers and some Financial Planners have been targeted by crooks.
Some of the latest scam attempts use CTSI branding and there is evidence the scammers are targeting vulnerable consumers who may have previously lost money to other financial scams, including insurance scams. The scammers may be using a 'target list', the CTSI said.
The FCA warned consumers to be wary on any approaches by people claiming to be the CTSI.
In a warning on its website, the CTSI said: “Gangs of criminals are pretending to be CTSI to obtain money by deception. Neither CTSI nor its members ever ask for money to pursue cases on behalf of consumers or businesses. In fact, CTSI itself (as a membership organisation) never pursues or prosecutes individual cases.
“Please DO NOT respond to any suspicious letters, emails or text messages using the CTSI Logo or other branding, or respond to any calls from people saying they are from CTSI and asking for money. Instead, please ignore them and report any incidents to your local police service, the Financial Conduct Authority or contact your Local Trading Standards Office.”
According to the CTSI, a report from one local Trading Standards Authority shows losses of more than £16,000 to a bogus text message, mail and email insurance scam impersonating CTSI that has been targeting the public for three years.
The CTSI said: “We believe that this could be the tip of the iceberg as, quite often, scams go unreported. So the money being lost to scammers could be tenfold what CTSI has evidence of. Evidence also suggests that those receiving the letters, emails and text messages are on ‘target lists’ - having previously been the victims of different scams.
“The letter in question, which uses CTSI branding, informs the recipient that Trading Standards has caught insurance scammers and that they should fill in a "creditors debt form," which is supposedly a compensation scheme but in actual fact serves as a means for fraudsters to gain access to personal details, including bank information, which puts respondents at risk of financial loss.”
Scammers are using a dozens of phone numbers to pretend to be the CTSI including 02071268251, 08000 982620 and 02035763867. There are also over a dozen fake email addresses in use including:
The genuine website address of the CTSI is: www.tradingstandards.uk
The genuine CTSI has no connection with any of the scammers.
Consumers can use the FCA FCA Firm Checker to make sure a financial firm is authorised.