Families and OAPs ‘raped of their savings’ by aggressive new investment scam which cops say is the ‘biggest fraud in the UK’
Have you been the victim of a similar scam? Get in touch with us. Email Daniel.Collins@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368
HEARTBROKEN pensioners are being driven to suicide by a sickening investment scam aimed at 'raping them' of their life savings.
Thousands of Britain's elderly have lost millions of pounds in total as part of the so-called binary options plan.
And police say they are seeing a worrying rise in the crime - with two new cases reported EVERY DAY.
Some have even committed suicide after being swindled of sums in excess of £200,000, the con artists have alleged.
The average victim has lost £16,000.
Have you been the victim of a similar scam? Get in touch with us. Email Daniel.Collins@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368
The devious ploy sees heartless salespeople harass the victims via email and phone, persuading them to invest small sums of around £250 in shares and currency.
All the while, a second wave of seemingly-charming brokers swoop in and persuade the pensioners to invest thousands more into the schemes.
Reports suggest many pensioners later have vast sums withdrawn from their credit cards WITHOUT their authorisation.
Victims are often convinced of get-rich-quick investment schemes using the vast pensions lumps sums recently freed up by the government.
Incredibly, despite the practice being illegal in the US and many European nations, a loophole in British law means there is no way to regulate it.
How are con artists fleecing the elderly of their life savings?
Thousands of British OAPs are estimated to have lost as average of £16,000 as part of the binary options investment scheme.
Millions of calls are made from cold callers every months.
On average, on victim will show an interest in the scheme every 30 seconds.
The victims is then persuaded to invest a small amount in the scheme - usually around £250.
But they are later harassed by a second wave of callers who entice them to spend more of their savings on the schemes.
The money is invested into dead-end stocks and currencies unlikely to make a profit.
The companies often withdraw thousands from a client's account without warning.
And many have said that when they tried to retrieve some of their investment, they are unable to contact the company, which often liquidates, disappears and then reappears in a different format to strike again.
And authorities warned the current spate of fraud could be just the tip of a vast iceberg.
Financial regulator the FCA warned: "Most consumers describe having lost substantial sums of money.
"While this might be expected given the high-risk, win-or-lose nature of the activity, we are particularly concerned about the experiences many consumers report to us when trying to deal with unauthorised or unlicensed binary options firms.
"We regularly hear about such firms suddenly closing consumers’ trading accounts, refusing to pay back their funds and ceasing any further contact."
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