The SCD6 Economic and Specialist Crime is issuing warnings as part of a joint initiative with agencies in the USA and UK against a type of scam known variously as High Yield Investment fraud, Prime Bank fraud or advanced fee fraud. There are a myriad of schemes and scams with proposals purely designed to facilitate victims parting with money
It is impossible to describe how each scheme works as the only boundries that are known are the scope and depth of the fraudsters imagination.
Some examples are:
* Banks from remote areas of the world offering Bank Guarantees for hundred’s of millions of dollars
* US Federal Reserve Notes recovered from a World War Two Plane crash site in the Phillipines.
* Historical US Railway Bonds
* Pre-World War 2 Hitler’s Gold Bearer Shares recovered from a lake in Austria
the list is endless. The common theme throughout is that all these schemes are designed to part the unwary from their money.
In the section “How the fraudsters work” we have tried to show the basic structure of how the various fraudulent schemes may work. This is not the “be all and end all” as the schemes are constantly evolving. Any investment scheme which is out of the ordinary with high rates of return yet with little or no risk should be treated with diligence.
If you are offered any investment scheme which offers high investment returns that could not be obtained on the high street or by normal investment procedures, do as we do and try the “Scam Exam”. Compare any papers you have been shown against the lists on the “Common phrases” and “Common statements” pages. Some of these terms may be correct banking expressions or close derivations of them. Some may be just meaningless or nonsensical however they have been used so many times over the years that they themselves have gained some history and credibility. The inclusion of several of these expressions in any document being examined should give cause for concern.