Warning to UK residents: scams demanding upfront fees have soared by 550%

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is a warning to UK residents and I would like to point out that a lot of people buy cats online nowadays from social media for example and not infrequently these sellers ask for money upfront perhaps in a deposit. Then the buyer never hears from the seller again. That is the kind of scam that this article refers to. But it covers a whole host of different products and commercial transactions.

Upfront fee scams increase in the UK. Image: MikeB

The Times reports that, "Scams that ask people to pay an upfront fee for fake goods or services have soared sixfold since Covid-19 but overall fraud has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels".

The Office for National Statistics said that there were 391,000 advance fee fraud offences committed in the 12 months to March 2023 which is the equivalent of 1071 every day or 44 per hour!

This was a 541% increase on the 60,000 advance fee fraud offences committed in the same period running up to March 2020. This is the time when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were first introduced.

Advanced fraud fee scammers seek to entice eager buyers to send money online in advance of receiving the goods or services. The basic advice is to NEVER PAY MONEY UPFRONT. Unless you absolutely no for sure that the person you are sending the money to is reliable and honest. That's unlikely to be the case. Personally, I would never give anybody money upfront for goods or services.

If anybody asks you for money upfront particular on social media you immediately presume that they are scammers. That might sound a little aggressive and cynical but it is good advice.

As mentioned, there have been numerous scams of this nature concerning the purchase of kittens online. Sometimes the scam is compounded by the seller purporting to sell a purebred cat such as the popular Maine Coon. You send the money to reserve a kitten and at that point the seller disappears. They never communicate again and you never see your kitten.

Never buy a purebred cat online without seeing the kitten first at the seller's property. Just don't do it in my view. Unless, once again, you can verify that the seller is bone fide and therefore honest and genuine.

The world is becoming more dangerous. There are more scammers around these days. Particularly in the UK. Scammers think that the UK is "treasure island". It is because there are too many silly people falling for these scams. We all have to be super-vigilant all the time. And we are alone because the police do nothing about online fraud. They are totally out of their depth.