Most Common Scams: Telemarketing Fraud

Imagine the near perfect evening. You are relaxing at home. All your work for the day is complete. There is nothing left to do except sit back, turn on the tube and enjoy your favourite movie.

You decide to take a moment to think about what you would like to eat. This has become the most important decision of the evening for you. You decide to pass on the pizza and just prepare and giant bowl of popcorn. Maybe you will have some chips and dip as well. After all, this is your night and you can do anything you want.

After a quick perusal of movie choices being offered for the evening you settle on a classic. It appears to be a part western part suspense starring that huge internationally famous what's his name. It doesn't matter that you don't remember his name because it will be a good movie. It will be a great movie. You are the master of your domain.

Just as you are about to settle in and shortly after you salted the popcorn, your telephone rings. The person on the other end asks for you by name. You don't think anything of it. The caller tells you the name of his company and mentions that he got your name from a contest that you had entered earlier. You can't quite remember entering the contest but it doesn't matter because as it turns out you've won. Now of course you begin to wonder, what have I won?

The caller tells you that you are guaranteed one of three possible prizes. One of them is a cash prize of $50,000.00, the other is a brand new car and the final possibility is a clock radio. It all sounds quite exciting and you begin to wonder which prize will be yours. You explain to the caller that it all sounds great and ask when you will be receiving your award. Not so fast. The caller is extremely excited for you as well but there are some administrative issues to resolve first.

Mysteriously now the focus of the conversation turns from your prize to a request the you now make a purchase. You are told that in order to receive your prize you must make a purchase of a pen set. You have a choice of the student or executive class series. The purchase price is between $60 and $100 which is nothing in comparison to the $50,000.00 that could be waiting for you. You figure it's not such a bad deal. You give them a credit card number, your address and the caller tells you to expect delivery of your purchase and prize notification within three weeks. Not bad right? Wrong! You have just fallen victim to a telemarketing fraud and you haven't even started on your popcorn!

This is just one variation of a number of telemarketing scams that have been operating in one form or another for decades. The first thing you should know is to never send personal or financial information to strangers over the phone. This makes you susceptible to a variety of frauds. If you can stick to this rule, you should never have problems with these kinds of fraudsters. The good news is they will always say things that give them away. They will ask for credit card numbers and try to pressure you to act immediately. They will give you barely any information about themselves and discourage any research on your part about their company. They will almost always make offers that sound too good to be true that will require some kind of payment from you.

If you are suspicious of what the caller is offering you over the phone, go with your instincts. Ask for all the information about the caller including the name of the business, the caller's identification, phone number, street address and business license etc. If you don't recognize them then check them out with a consumer protection agency like the Better Business Bureau. Do yourself a favour and never conclude a business deal with anyone over the phone on the first call. Give yourself ample time to check out the company and to understand the offer thoroughly. Remember, you should never have to pay a fee for a prize and no legitimate company should pressure you into a snap judgement and deny you information you are requesting.

Keep these tips in mind and you will make telemarketing fraud a thing of the past.