When Peter and Sonya Hobson from Hampton Court invested their life savings in a
diamond company
it seemed too good to be true when it walls and they lost almost
olive it calmed by bogus investment companies
more than 5,000 people caught out by similar operations
and now police in the can the city a trying to fight back
they waited 20 suspect offices today
Nick Hanrahan was with them Peter in sonya's diamonds
are real bought after they were contacted by a company
offering some stunning returns on their money I didn't listen to common sense
because the it looked pretty good investment at the time
but their investment has lost its sparkle
the diamonds out west a fraction up the money they spent
people like this still exist the store
on still trying to you con people owe them money
its its the content to the show for you
we're looking offices for love young lads usually
up Mike an aggressive high pressured call Ruth
police & Trading Standards preparing for braids across London
at 10 locations companies being investigated by the police
illegal schemes calmed investors out at one point seven billion pounds last year
what they do is is largely cold calling and they are
totally unscrupulous they don't care the impact on the people
on their fans on their families on the health and they will take advantage of
them
the police in trading standards actually believe that could be dozens of illegal
businesses
operating after this one tell a block and then now getting in
to establish whether that's true or not we from
trading standards and the police we got colleagues here from
HMRC with us inside they found three companies
to love which with virtual falsely claiming to be based here
a flop known in the
known in when the team arrived to investigate suspected fraud at this
company
though computers were left on the office was deserted
they've apparently down souls outlets at short notice
that this is not uncommon now but we are generally moving in
just huge disruption it says she came people how today's
20 combination dresses analysis Inc fraudsters who are quick to adapt will
continue to target
people like Peter in sonya with police concerned that scam activity will
intensify
after the government's pension reforms which now means some retired people
have access to large amounts of money the camera had on TV news
sought to do to avoid being conned like the company not report him join now buy
pensions experts rose open thank you so much for coming in
from the scans are incredibly sophisticated all that I'm sure they're
not the people thinking up ways to scam people out their pensions help me that
okay so how can people scam prefect savings in that case
what number one never actually
give any money to somebody who's trying to pressure you into giving it
because their classic tactic is to say
here this offer is only available for a short time and you know you don't wanna
miss it
and they'll use things like that other people have been investing
don't believe a word of it if somebody you don't know
calls you up and says they've got good investment idea put the phone down
and he should you call in that case well if you want to take it further
it looks as if the police are going to be trying to investigate
I mean certainly from the point of view the City of London the last thing we
want
is for the reputation ove London
and the City to be tarnished by more and more people trying to
Freese you out if your money
difficulty because when people are calling on the phone they can be
incredibly persuasive sometimes it could be difficult
so i cant if it's real of its fake is there any information that you
definitely should not be giving out to somebody you don't know
friends you up and asks you all tries to encourage you
to invest something never do it just put the phone down
you need very much to be vigilant
if you've got a pension fund you need to stick with the
a regulated company make sure they're regulated the financial conduct
authority
will be regulating if you've got any suspicions or doubts
call-up go to the police if you're worried about something because
unless somebody tells the police about risk and they're not going to know about
it and don't wait
to its too late because once you've given the money over
you probably won't get it back again three chamber rust thank you so much for
your advice is coming in