Charitable Donation Scams

Charities use mailing lists to send out requests for charitable donations and highlight their causes, as this is a reasonably cheap way to contact a large number of people.  However fraudsters can also pose as charities and send out similar requests, with the intent to use your kind donation for their own purposes, or to trick you into revealing your sensitive financial details such as your bank account or credit card numbers, which they will then use to run up fraudulent charges.  If you would like to donate to a charity you have seen advertising through unsolicited mail, make sure that you check the charity has been registered and has a valid charity number, and that the return address corresponds with the official address in the phone book or on the website.

Fake goods or services

Many companies use mailing list to send out brochures and special deals for their products or services, but these too could potentially be fraudulent, and although they look very professional they could just simply be an attempt to trick you into revealing your sensitive personal details, or the goods you receive could be not those advertised, counterfeit or of a very inferior quality.

Investment Scams

You may receive offers through the post inviting you to take part in ‘once in a lifetime’ investment opportunities, and this may be for things like land, property, new businesses, or shares and bonds.  The questions you must ask yourself is who is the person/company offering the deal, and are they legitimate, and also if it was such an amazing opportunity, why does it need to be advertised to the general public?  In reality this was truly were such as profitable deal then professional investors would have snapped it long before it would have had a chance to reach your door.

Home Security
Your home will contain a lot of important personal information from banks statements and plastic cards through to key identity documents such as passports and birth certificates.  Therefore it is very important that you protect any important documents as you would any other valuables, and keep them in a safe, secure place when not in use.  Don’t leave your key documents such as your passport lying around and instead keep them locked away in a safety deposit box.  Check around your home and make sure you have adequate protection in place from opportunistic thieves, and make sure all of the doors and windows are locked at night or if you are away from the house.

Household Rubbish
One of the most common methods thieves have for accessing your personal information is to go through your rubbish and steal any documents you have thrown away such as utility bills, bank statements and old payslips.  Therefore it is very important that your shred any pieces of paper that contain your personal details before you dispose of them, and keep your rubbish in a secure place (such as your backyard) so that it cannot be tampered with before collection day.

Confidentiality
You should be treating all of your personal information such as your Social Security Number, bank account details and credit card numbers as confidential, and only ever giving out these details if you are absolute sure that the request is genuine.  Never give out personal details on the phone to callers you cannot identify, and remember your bank would never ask you for your sensitive account details either by phone or email, so any requests such as this are nearly always scams and you should not reply.