Telemarketing Fraud Scams

Telemarketing is one of the most common methods used by fraudsters to contact thousands of potential victims, and they have a number of very convincing scams which they can use to trick people into parting with their cash, or revealing their personal information such as credit card numbers and bank accounts which then can be used by the fraudsters for a number of crimes such as running up fraudulent charges on another persons account, or setting up new fraudulent accounts in their name. Learn more about identity protection.

Types of Telemarketing Scams

Telemarketing basically involves cold calling people from a telephone number database, and there are a number of common scams used to try and trick the target into revealing personal information or paying for fake goods, services or investments.  You should be wary of any call that involves ‘too good to be true’ offers or claims such as:

• Calls claiming you have won an amazing prize – these will often be automated recordings that instruct you to dial a number in order to claim your prize (could be cash, a holiday or a free gift), which will take you through to a high premium rate line that will charge you lots of money before you hang up, and you may also be asked to provide your personal details in order to collect the prize or have it delivered to you.
• Calls from investment dealers – these dealers will often claim they have a ‘no risk, high profit’ investment opportunity for you, and that you will need to pay them a small initial investment in order to get the project off the ground or cover admin fees.
• Calls asking for charitable donations – although genuine charities do use telemarketing in order to bring in new donations, thieves and fraudsters can also pretend to be calling you on behalf of a charity.  If you want to give to a charity avoid doing it over the phone from a telemarketer, as you just cannot guarantee they are who they say they are, and you could try phoning the charity using the official number listed in the phone book, or visiting their official website.

Remember that if something sounds too good to be true then unfortunately it normally is, and don’t let high pressure tactics used over the phone force you into agreeing to something before you have had a chance to think it through carefully.