Rip Off Britain (2009) s07e11 Episode Script
Series 7, Episode 11
1 We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling ripped off and you contacted us in your thousands.
You've told us about the companies who you think get it wrong and the customer service that simply isn't up to scratch.
If I walk in somewhere and they treat me badly, then I walk and I will never go in again.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges that you say are unfair.
You've paid for a service and you expect it to be the service that you've paid for.
And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
As a customer, you've got to be more savvy in terms of what you're buying and make sure it's something that you want or need and not something they're trying to trick you into getting.
So whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake, we're here to find out why you are out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money.
This is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, where today we're all about stopping the scammers and the conmen in their tracks, to make sure they don't get their grubby little hands on a single penny of your hard-earned money.
And while of course there are plenty of scams that particularly target older people, we'll be exposing a real variety that are aimed at quite a mix of age groups.
But of course, what they have in common is that whoever is behind them has managed to find a way to exploit your details for their gain.
Not if we've got anything to do with it, I can tell you, because by the end of today's programme, you're going to be armed with the key things you need to know to avoid being taken in, so that the next time a fraudster does come after you and your money, well, they're not going to get anywhere near them.
And along the way, we'll be having a really good look into exactly how they get hold of your details in the first place.
Coming up, how e-mail hackers were able to help themselves to a fortune when this man was selling his house.
In total, there was £333,000 went missing.
And the student conned by an online job that simply didn't exist.
My gut reaction was, "Oh, I've been so stupid.
" I was told that the money would probably never be returned.
Every year our inbox is absolutely full of complaints from people who feel either overwhelmed or just plain irritated by the sheer deluge of junk and scam mail that lands on their doorstep.
And one of the questions we're asked most often is how it is that whoever's sending it out got hold of your details in the first place.
Well, I went to Belfast to meet one of the teams who are cracking down on scam mail.
Indeed, they've already seized mail containing money before it even reaches the scammers.
There's a list of people whose names have been compiled by fraudsters They're very devious, the way they work.
.
.
people who've fallen victim to sophisticated scams, to get-rich-quick schemes and to bogus prize draws.
I was totally devastated.
Devastated.
I felt so silly.
The list of names is real.
It's bought and sold around the world and used to exploit people here in the UK.
It's known as a "suckers list" and I've come to a village near Belfast to find out what can happen if you're on it.
Crooks came up with the name, but officials prefer not to use the word "sucker", and that's because victims can feel angry and too ashamed to talk about being tricked.
But the couple that I'm about to meet ARE prepared to talk about their experience, as between them, they have been scammed out of almost £27,000.
Jimmy Mallon is a GP and his wife Helen is a retired teacher -- not people you would expect to be easily fooled.
But it seems certain they are on a widely-distributed suckers list, because every day they're being hounded with unwanted calls and letters.
And though now they try and ignore them, some of the earlier cold calls were so plausible that Jimmy spent thousands buying worthless land in Brazil after being contacted by a scammer with a British accent who promised to double his money.
I've got the certificates here.
£5,000, or nearly £5,000, on 9th July and then 20,000 on 25th July.
Are you convinced that you actually bought something? I think we did buy something.
But some of the plots were scrubland, 250 miles away from anywhere, so That looks as though it's going to be just a total waste of money.
- How do you feel about that? - Awful.
Silly.
Embarrassed.
His wife, Helen, fell victim to a separate phone scam, sending off £1,200 in fees to claim an £8,500 lottery prize that didn't exist.
I suppose, like Jimmy, I saw the chance of having extra money.
And our daughter was getting married the next August, as well.
I was thinking, "Oh, happy days!" This would be easy to spend.
Jimmy and Helen's story is shocking.
But the £27,000 that they've lost is a drop in the ocean.
Trading Standards say in the UK 200,000 people are on the suckers list, meaning that millions of pounds are falling into the hands of scammers every year.
So they've begun the process of warning the people that they fear may be on a suckers list.
But because of the sheer numbers involved, not everyone is going to be contacted.
Belfast Trading Standards officer Beverley Burns has been working with the Royal Mail to stop as many of those who've been targeted as she can from losing their money.
I'm just going to take you into our live evidence store and let you have a look at post which we seized from a postal box in Belfast.
'They've intercepted the responses people have unwittingly sent to 'what has been identified as a scammer's address.
' Wow! We have 22,000 letters.
Each of these contain cash, postal orders and cheques and they amount to £300,000.
This was four weeks' post going to one scammer.
If all of this is the product of just four weeks' post to one scam operation in one city, Belfast, imagine the size of the problem if you multiply this by every scam in operation throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.
Beverley is part of a new national scam scheme set up to help combat the scammers, and the sort of cons that she comes across could well be the ones that are also dropping through your letterbox.
Well, they send them letters in the post saying they've won the lottery or asking them to enter the lottery and they're sending them catalogues.
Now, attached to those catalogues will be letters which will indicate that you've won a prize -- a large sum of money.
But in order to get the prize, you have to place an order from their catalogue.
The people who do place the orders, they get the goods, but they never get the prize draws.
And there's an even darker side.
Beverley wanted to show me a letter supposedly sent by a clairvoyant.
It was found in the home of a woman who was driven to suicide due to the unrelenting harassment that she received from scammers.
It was written to scare her into sending money.
"You are the victim of a spell.
"A dark-haired woman is working against you in the shadows.
"The dark-haired woman is holding a photograph of you in one hand, "and in the other, a needle.
"Beverley, it is urgent to act.
"These influences are harmful to you.
"To stop all these pranks, "I'm going to stop this dark-haired woman using a counter-spell.
" Back page, send £24 and they're going to perform -- wait for it -- free of charge, an emergency ritual by telepathy.
That is hideous.
Beverley spends much of her time visiting people throughout Northern Ireland whose names, it appears, have ended up on the suckers list.
Most people are shocked to learn that their name is on a suckers list and their details are being shared right around the world between international scammers.
- Most will accept the advice that I give.
- Which is? - Not to respond.
Beverley undoubtedly does a fantastic job, helping victims and potential victims of scams to understand the dangers so that they don't fall for the fraudsters' convincing lies.
But does she have the powers she needs to pursue the criminals involved? I personally believe that the law could be a bit tighter.
It's going to take an international team from right around the world to get on top of this because you need to act very quickly in order to track down the money and these scammers.
With no prospect of an international task force on the horizon, Beverley reiterated the simple advice that should stop anyone from being taken in.
If you're getting letters through the door saying you've won large sums of money, don't believe them.
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is? - It really is, it really is.
- Yes.
So ignore anything that is unsolicited that comes through the post or via your telephone? Post, telephone, text messages and e-mails.
You just need to be careful of the whole lot because once you send your first £5 off to a scam, that's you onto the list and you will be targeted repeatedly.
The Information Commissioner has promised that he will take action on all illegally-held data such as names, addresses and telephone numbers.
But the nub of the problem is that while the crime may be committed here, the perpetrators, the scammers, could be anywhere in the world.
Now, it's only through the letters and e-mails you very kindly send us here at Rip-Off Britain that we discover the latest devious methods that scammers and fraudsters use to con you out of your money.
Whether it's by impersonating you or some elaborate scam duping you into handing over your details, they can be as ingenious as they are shameless.
And we thought we'd heard it all until we came across this next story which has to be one of the most alarming you've ever sent us.
The criminals in this case had come up with a way of intercepting some very important e-mails and it almost cost one family the entire proceeds of selling their home.
When Paul Lupton from Stoke-on-Trent was selling his property in London in 2014, the last thing he expected was to be a victim of crime.
Well, I owned a flat in London which my daughter was living in.
She was expecting and her and her boyfriend wanted to buy their own larger house.
So I put the property up for sale.
The firm of solicitors Paul was using to complete the sale had handled two of his previous house purchases, so he knew and trusted them.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, completion was expected at the end of the month.
And when Paul received an e-mail from the solicitors two days before completion asking him to confirm his bank details, there didn't seem any reason why that might be a problem.
The solicitor and I had exchanged e-mails a lot, there was no chain, so I knew she needed my bank account and when she asked for it, I just re-clicked on reply, sent my sort code and my account number.
But, though he didn't yet know it, Paul's e-mail account had been hacked.
All his messages, contacts and, crucially, his e-mail address were now in the hands of criminals intent on defrauding him.
So, using that information and posing as Paul, the hackers were then able to send another message to the solicitors from Paul's e-mail address asking them to disregard the previous bank account details he'd sent and instructing them to send the money from the sale of the flat to a different bank account instead.
I had no idea that my e-mails had been hacked.
I would say I'm quite a careful person when it comes to e-mail and fraud and I'm always on the lookout, but on this occasion, there was nothing to make me feel suspicious.
Over the next two days, before completion, the hackers exchanged e-mails with the solicitors five times.
All the while, Paul had no idea any of this was going on.
I got a phone call about ten o'clock to say everything had gone through and about two hours later, I checked my bank account.
The money hadn't arrived.
I didn't feel that there was anything to be worried about other than it was annoying that there was a delay.
Paul e-mailed the solicitors to see what the hold-up was.
But of course, this contact was immediately intercepted by the hackers who still had full access to his messages.
In an attempt to divert his attention from the crime and buy themselves more time, the criminals replied to Paul posing as the solicitor's secretary, reassuring him that although they'd missed the deadline, the money would be with him on the Monday.
But when Monday came and went, with still no signs of the cash in his account, Paul began to feel frustrated with the solicitors.
I received an e-mail on Monday morning.
I thought it was from the solicitor and it said that we're very sorry, there'd been an error in inputting the account number and there'd be a further delay until the Tuesday before I got my money.
I was so angry at this I immediately e-mailed back and I copied in the secretary's boss, who was a partner in the firm, and I said, "How has this mistake happened? Who made the mistake?" So this time, Paul had copied in a partner at the firm of solicitors and she immediately smelt a rat.
She immediately picked up the phone and said to me, "We believe fraud has happened here.
" She encouraged me to get off the phone as quickly as possible and contact the bank and the police and said that they would do the same.
But as the day went on and as we went into the next day, it just seemed to get worse and worse.
Despite there being proof that fraud HAD taken place, Paul was horrified to discover that because it was HIS e-mail that had been hacked, the solicitors didn't consider that they shared any responsibility for what had happened.
On the next day, I got a phone call from a senior partner in the law firm and he said to me that they had done nothing wrong.
They'd acted on the instructions from me, from my e-mail address and transferred the money into the account that I'd asked them to do.
It seemed that Paul, through no fault of his own, had now lost £333,000 and there was nothing he could do about it.
Nobody was saying what I wanted them to say, which was, "Don't worry, this will all get sorted out.
These things happen.
" In fact, absolutely the opposite.
I was being told by the bank and by the solicitor that they'd done nothing wrong.
So at that stage, it just looked pretty bad.
Over the next few days, Paul's bank was able to get the accounts of the criminals frozen, stopping them from getting their hands on most of Paul's money, though £63,000 had already been withdrawn by the hackers.
In total, there was £333,000 missing.
A few days after, I received notification that 270 had been recovered, which was a massive relief.
Because the fraud wasn't reported to them immediately, Paul's bank told him that it was only liable for funds withdrawn by the fraudsters after they were informed of the crime.
But there was some good news about his losses.
A few days later, I was told that outside the bank, in another bank, they had found about £10,000 which had been frozen.
So in total, my losses at the moment are of £48,500.
Paul firmly believes that his solicitors could have done more to stop the fraud happening.
He thinks the e-mail requesting his funds to be sent to a different account should have made them suspicious and they should have rung him to check it was genuine.
After all, in 2014, the Solicitors Regulation Authority had published guidance on cyber security, identifying hacking as an emerging risk.
And in June 2015, the SRA again warned solicitors that this type of fraud is escalating.
It urged law firms to understand the risks and take precautions as this is an issue that is not going away.
We contacted Paul's solicitors, Perry Hay & Co, who told us that while they have "every sympathy" with Paul's predicament, the facts remain that it was HIS e-mail that was hacked and their own systems were not breached or compromised in any way.
They also made clear that as soon as they became aware of the fraud, they reported it to the police and the bank.
We also got in touch with Paul's bank who reiterated that they had "thoroughly investigated this complaint" and acted in accordance with all regulations in reaching the decision that they are not liable for the funds withdrawn by the fraudsters before the bank was informed of the crime.
But Paul is angry that he's ended up £48,000 out of pocket through no fault of his own.
So he's taken his case to the legal ombudsman and while he waits for a decision, he remains both horrified and distressed about how the hackers were able to hijack his e-mails.
Knowing that my e-mail accounts have been hacked just leaves you feeling on edge all the time.
Not just transferring money to somebody or buying something on the internet, even just writing an e-mail to a friend, you're wondering if somebody else might be reading that e-mail.
So it just makes you feel uncomfortable.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain How fraudsters persuaded this man to keep investing in what turned out to be a multi-million pound scam.
Soon, I was sending in 40,000 and 50,000.
Towards the end I was putting in 100,000 at a time.
Our Rip-Off Britain pop-up shop is back and open for business.
- Hi, are you being looked after? - Yes, my wife, Liz.
Ah, hi, Liz.
How are you? This year, we were in Nottingham, giving you the opportunity to get free face-to-face advice from our top team of experts.
- Do keep an eye on the rules, because they're changing.
- Yeah.
And there may be a chance where you get to renegotiate your deal.
James O'Dell came to see if financial ombudsman Martin James could help him get his money back after his second-hand car broke down only weeks after he bought it.
I bought a car last June and about three weeks later it caught fire - when I was driving to work.
- It caught fire? - Yeah.
- My gosh.
- It sounds awful.
- As I was driving.
- So this was only three weeks after you'd bought the car? - Yeah.
- So, your insurance, did you make a claim on that policy? - Yeah, I did, yeah.
OK.
And how did that go? I lost over £500 from that on the valuation of the car.
Right, I see.
OK.
'After examining the car, the insurance company told James 'that it was a write-off, 'and although he'd paid £2,500 for it just three weeks earlier, 'his policy would only pay out 1,900, 'leaving him almost £600 out of pocket.
' We can get one of my colleagues to see if we can send a letter, maybe, to the insurance company, just to double-check if they've used the right valuation.
And maybe that might make a little bit of difference and it won't cost you any money to do that.
- So how does all that sound, James? - Great.
- Yeah? If anything can help then it's better than nothing.
- Well, that's what we're here for, isn't it? - Fantastic.
- Thank you very much.
Thanks for coming in.
- No problem.
And when Martin's team did contact James' insurance company to discuss his case, because James had only had the car for three weeks, his insurer has now agreed to pay out the extra £600.
Another great result.
And it wasn't just inside our shop where our experts were handing out advice.
Out in the shopping centre, lawyer Gary Rycroft was particularly keen to flag up a problem that an increasing number of us are storing up for the future.
What to do with all the photos and information that we might have saved online? - Do you know what your digital assets are? - No.
Blank faces all round.
What's a digital asset? It's the digital assets that have financial value, such as online bank accounts, the digital assets that have sentimental value, such as photographs that you may load up, and the digital assets that have social value, such as social media.
We're talking about what happens to those assets when you pass away.
- Have you got lots of digital assets on your telephone? - I have, yeah.
Photos, videos, music, all sorts.
- Do you know what to do with them? - No.
- Right.
Well, we're talking about the digital world but I actually think there's a lot to be said for good old-fashioned pen and paper.
So, write it all down on a digital directory and then there's a written record that can be found by your nearest and dearest after you've passed away.
And we can give some of these away.
- It's all free.
- It's all free.
The other really important thing to do, Angela, is make a will.
Because if you make a will, your executors, the people you name in your will to look after your estate after you've died, they have the legal authority to track down all of these assets and pass them on to your beneficiaries.
And if you don't do any of this, what's likely to happen? - It's likely to be chaos.
- Is this anything you've ever thought about? - No, not at all.
Not at all.
- Will you think about it now? - I will, yeah.
- I tell you what - Thank you very much! - .
.
why don't you hand those out? - Thank you.
There's a lot of them there.
Hand them out to everybody.
And you can download Gary's digital directory from our website .
.
where you'll also find plenty of other tips and advice from the rest of our team of experts.
Now, over the years on Rip-off Britain, we've become rather used to the idea that scammers will always find a way to target anybody, and here's a way they can do it to target young people who are desperate to get their first foot onto the jobs ladder.
Now, we were contacted by one young lady who's determined to make sure that what happened to her doesn't catch out anyone else in the same way.
19-year-old Chloe McCombe thought she had it all worked out.
Coming to the end of her first year at Ulster University, she was looking to get a taste of holding down a job and earn some much-needed cash.
I think work experience is really important on a CV because it shows that you've had the initiative to go out and find work.
Chloe had a very clear idea of the type of work she was after.
Working abroad was definitely something I wanted to do, just as a way of earning money and getting to travel.
I like working with children so I thought an au pair job would be really good.
After a quick search online, Chloe came across a site called easyaupair.
com, where she'd be able to post her CV in the hope that families around the world would be up for hiring her.
And while Chloe was really excited about what opportunity might come up, her mum, Ruth, was naturally worried about the prospect of her daughter working abroad for the summer.
I was nervous because she'd never been away on her own before, and I told Chloe just to be careful, to make sure that she knew where she was going, who she was going with, was the website legit.
As an au pair, Chloe was expecting that in exchange for board, lodging and a small allowance, she would take responsibility for childcare and some housework.
And it wasn't long before she received a number of responses to her online post from places like France, Spain, Australia and, indeed, one from America.
Getting so many responses was great because it built up my confidence that people were interested in having me and hosting me.
The dates Chloe could be away didn't match either of the European positions, so she responded by e-mail to the placement in America, and it wasn't long before she was contacted by what appeared to be the host family themselves.
The person Chloe heard from called herself Sarah Nicole.
She claimed to be from New York and described herself as a married mother of two children aged seven and nine.
When she sent me the picture of herself and her children, I was really excited to go.
Given the trust involved in letting a stranger look after your kids, Chloe thought it was perfectly reasonable when Sarah Nicole asked to do an interview over the internet.
My first impressions were that she was very nice.
Her English in the e-mails wasn't that good, but whenever I had the Skype interviews, her spoken English was very good.
After the interview, it was agreed that Chloe would fly out on Saturday 16th August for one month.
All she needed to do was to get a visa and her flight, and Sarah Nicole claimed that she knew just the person to do this, putting Chloe in touch with a Mrs Simpson.
I was told by her that all I needed to do was pay some money and she would get the visa and the immigration documents done.
Mrs Simpson told Chloe that her visa would cost 480 but on top of that, Chloe had paid Sarah Nicole nearly 1,000 for her flights.
Both needed to be paid directly via Western Union.
I saved most of the money myself.
My mum and dad did pay for some of it, but most of it was mine or from my student loan.
Once she'd sent the money, Chloe was sent a confirmation e-mail for her flights and what looked like a visa.
With the arrangements apparently in place, Chloe's mum wanted to know more about the area where her daughter would be living.
But when they looked up the address online, they were shocked to discover that Sarah Nicole's supposed home looked like it was up for sale.
It was the first time I had checked out her credentials away from e-mails.
I'd just never thought of doing that before, because she seemed so genuine and so legit that I didn't think of googling her or anything.
But Chloe did then start doing more research and as she dug deeper, she found warnings against online scams that listed both Sarah Nicole's name and e-mail address, making it clear that what she'd been told was a lie.
It seemed there was no genuine Sarah Nicole.
My gut reaction was, "I've been so stupid!" You know, how could I have believed her? But at the same time, I was a bit confused because I had had a Skype interview with her.
I had seen her, I had heard her.
When Chloe had another look at the Easy Au Pair site, she saw a page called Anti Scam Programme, with warnings about people posing as someone needing an au pair but who turned out to be scammers waiting to trick people like Chloe out of their money by taking cash for flights and then cancelling them and sending out fake visas.
In disbelief, Chloe contacted the police, but because she had paid by Western Union, it was clear there wasn't very much they could do.
I was told that the money would probably never be returned to me because of the way it was transferred.
I was upset for Chloe because she had been so enthusiastic and so eager about this job in America.
She'd really set her heart on it.
Still unwilling to believe that she had been scammed, Chloe says she tried e-mailing the mysterious Sarah Nicole again to find out exactly what was going on.
She just sort of tried to reassure me that everything was OK, that I should still come to America, that everything would be OK.
I did accuse her outright of being a scam and being not real, and she did get a bit defensive and uptight about it.
But Chloe was no longer convinced.
In fact, further research online showed that the supposed Sarah Nicole had also sent out almost identical e-mails, the same photographs, jobs, ages and children's names to a number of other hopeful au pairs.
But they were not all sent using the name Sarah Nicole.
Others went out under a variety of different aliases.
We tried to contact Sarah Nicole by e-mail and post, but we heard nothing back.
Our attempts to reach Mrs Simpson also went unanswered.
But the American Embassy in London has confirmed that the visa details that Chloe was given were fake.
And when we got in touch with the Easy Au Pair website, where Chloe had first made contact with Sarah Nicole, no-one got back to us either.
But as we've seen earlier, they do have clear warnings about scams on the website.
But it's clear that students and job-seekers like Chloe can be easy, easy pickings for scammers.
Sussex Police recently warned that fraudsters were deliberately targeting youngsters looking for jobs online.
Chloe, sadly, never got to go on her dream trip to America.
Instead, she worked last summer at a local kids camp.
But now, after losing £1,500, she and her mum, Ruth, have learned a very harsh lesson about how far some people will go to make a scam seem plausible.
I know she was disappointed but whenever you see all this goodness.
I'm just so glad she's at home.
Next, an utterly cynical and heartbreaking scam that we've featured on the programme many times in the past.
It involves vast amounts of money and leaves people seriously out of pocket, so why is it still able to happen? Well, that's exactly the question that one of our viewers asked, so we felt we really had to try and find out.
These meadows might look like any other field in the English countryside, but there was a time when this land came with the promise of huge financial returns for canny punters looking to steal a march on the property developers.
Retired cruise ship manager Peter Pratt from Ripon in North Yorkshire was one investor sucked in by what seemed a perfect opportunity.
I was at sea for just over 42 years.
I was a hotel general manager on cruise ships.
Certainly, it was quite a responsible job because it's a bit like running a small town.
Before he stopped work in October 2010, Peter wanted to make sure that he had arrangements in place to truly make the most of his retirement, so he was open to ideas on how to best invest his life savings.
I started feeling a bit panicky, I suppose, in that I was suddenly going to go from a pretty reasonable salary to a pension, but I did wonder how I was going to keep up my standard of living.
He had savings but was concerned that they weren't growing.
Although I had money in ISAs and shares and bonds, they really weren't doing anything.
Peter's interest was pricked when he received a cold call from a company called Plott UK Ltd, offering him an opportunity to invest in land in Bedfordshire or Northamptonshire.
Plott UK were offering to sell me plots of land which at the time didn't have planning permission, but these plots of land were going to be bought by a large property developer.
And they sent me their glossy brochure and it all looked aboveboard.
As I'd invested in land before, I felt relatively comfortable with it.
The Plott UK representative told Peter that the land he was interested in buying was earmarked to be turned into a housing development.
This, he was told, meant that if he moved quickly, he could eventually sell on the land for around three times what he'd pay for it now.
My initial reaction to the offer was one of excitement, really.
I suppose particularly because the government were making such a noise about the fact that, you know, they were below their target.
Everything seemed to fit in.
Convinced by the slick sales patter, Peter decided to go full steam ahead, paying £10,000 for his high-value land.
But not long after, the Plott UK broker who handled his purchase, a Mr Harry Nelson, began to pressurise Peter into buying further plots.
Harry Nelson was calling me three to four times a week, building up a position of trust.
He told Peter that the property developer would want to buy out the larger investors first.
So, therefore, the more money I put in, the quicker I would be able to, um, be able to sell my plots to the developer and I would be able to realise my investment.
Persuaded that the way to realise his promised returns was to keep investing, Peter's payments to the company kept going up and up.
Gradually, the amounts requested increased.
Soon I was sending in 40,000 and, uh, then 50,000.
And, um towards the end, I was putting in 100,000 at a time.
Peter bought a total of 28 plots, costing him over half a million pounds.
But despite being told that he'd done everything he needed to do in order to turn his investment into gold, paying such an eye-watering amount was making him decidedly uncomfortable.
Towards the end, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable regarding the amount of money that I had put in.
I was beginning to have suspicions.
However, I think I was probably in denial that I could be so .
.
stupidly had, if you like.
His anxiety started to grow when Harry Nelson stopped answering his phone.
Just four weeks after Peter had made his last investment, Mr Nelson was nowhere to be found.
And the next that Peter heard about the company was when a letter arrived in the post from the Financial Services Authority, now known as the Financial Conduct Authority.
In short, this told Peter that the land he'd purchased was, in fact, worthless and that he'd fallen victim to an elaborate land banking scam.
I felt sick, numb .
.
almost suicidal, really, as I realised what I'd done to not only myself but my family.
I couldn't believe that I'd been a victim of such fraud.
It's obviously left us in a very difficult financial position and also a position of trust between my wife and myself.
So things will never, ever really be the same.
Peter and his family had lost over half a million pounds.
Worst of all, it's unlikely that they'll ever see any of his money again.
The company, Plott UK Ltd, were not registered with the FCA, meaning that there is no way that Peter can apply for compensation.
I think the basic problem I had was greed.
Harry Nelson obviously had done his homework and I was definitely greedy.
It sounded, uh, it sounded too good an opportunity to miss.
Harry Nelson had clearly not just targeted Peter.
There were over 100 investors, and this large-scale scam was brought to court by the FCA in January of 2015.
The fraudsters were convicted in what is now a landmark case where it was established that they had scammed investors out of a total of £4.
3 million.
And Harry Nelson, whose real name, it turned out, was Aaron Petrou, was jailed for five years for his part.
Along with seven of his colleagues, the fraudsters were jailed for a total of 26 years.
Obviously, the sentences, as far as I'm concerned, don't really match the enormity, certainly of what they've done to me.
The FCA, for their part, hope that this prosecution will act as a warning to others.
Cases of so-called land banking fraud are attractive to scammers, who are eager to take advantage of people's desire to make a quick buck in the property market.
We estimate that land banking schemes have cost UK investors over 200 million.
On the face of it, the FCA doesn't regulate land.
What we do regulate, however, is collective investment schemes.
Collective investment schemes means that your money is pooled with the money of other investors so, using that legislation, we were able to identify this as a scam and get those criminal convictions that we needed.
Despite the high-profile convictions of the Plott UK scam, it doesn't seem to have put off other criminals.
Peter believes that he has been targeted again by a company offering to take his worthless plots of land off his hands in return, of course, for a fee.
They are offering approximately 50% of what I paid for them.
However, the way there scam works is that they wish you to pay about £5,000 upfront for their administrative costs.
And if you ever paid that, that's the last you'd hear of it.
Of course, Peter reported this company to the FCA, and they have advice on what to do if you are targeted in the same way that he was.
People will make huge promises of fantastic, guaranteed returns.
That's often one of the ways to spot a scam.
Put the phone down on any cold call making promises that seem too good to be true.
If you're still tempted, I would advise you to do your homework, so check our FCA website, check our register.
If it's a land banking scheme, check your local council, look at the small print.
You can't be too cautious.
Peter still can't quite believe that he was taken in by such a scam.
And now, with no money left to pay off his mortgage, he's facing a very different retirement to the one that he'd planned.
If I could turn the clock back, which obviously I can't .
.
I would have left my investments as they were -- boring and rather unproductive, but at least the money was there.
I shouldn't have been so greedy and I very much regret what has happened.
Here at Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.
Confused over your bills or feel you're paying well over the odds? It's far too small and it's done on purpose so that you can't actually read it.
People look at it and they'll say, "I can't be bothered reading that.
" Are you unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out and that so-called great deal has ended up costing you money? People are buying into this.
I did, you know.
And are they going to be as awkward with them as they were with me? You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share your story with us so that other people don't do the same thing.
Just fobbed off completely and very disappointed.
Well, you can write to us at Or you can send us an e-mail The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Well, hopefully today we've given you some really practical and useful pointers so that you will know what to watch out for when and if the scammers have got you in their sights.
But of course, sadly, the reality is that they are constantly coming up with new variations or finding sneaky and ingenious ways to hack into the latest technology.
And that's where you come in.
We rely on you to tip us off about the latest scams you come across.
And remember, if you're the one who's been caught out, there's no need to feel embarrassed or that you've been foolish.
Scams are, unfortunately, big business so if you've fallen for one, you're in good company.
But having said that, the sums of money involved in some of those stories, I think, are just shocking.
And it's because the fraudsters are so good at covering their tracks that, more often than not, they simply get away with it.
But we can make it a lot more difficult for them by ensuring that we're on our guard and wise to their latest tactics, so a lot of pointers to take away today.
I'm afraid that's where we have to leave it for this programme, but we'll see you for more Rip-Off Britain stories very soon.
- So, until then, from all of us and all the team, bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.
You've told us about the companies who you think get it wrong and the customer service that simply isn't up to scratch.
If I walk in somewhere and they treat me badly, then I walk and I will never go in again.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges that you say are unfair.
You've paid for a service and you expect it to be the service that you've paid for.
And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
As a customer, you've got to be more savvy in terms of what you're buying and make sure it's something that you want or need and not something they're trying to trick you into getting.
So whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake, we're here to find out why you are out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money.
This is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, where today we're all about stopping the scammers and the conmen in their tracks, to make sure they don't get their grubby little hands on a single penny of your hard-earned money.
And while of course there are plenty of scams that particularly target older people, we'll be exposing a real variety that are aimed at quite a mix of age groups.
But of course, what they have in common is that whoever is behind them has managed to find a way to exploit your details for their gain.
Not if we've got anything to do with it, I can tell you, because by the end of today's programme, you're going to be armed with the key things you need to know to avoid being taken in, so that the next time a fraudster does come after you and your money, well, they're not going to get anywhere near them.
And along the way, we'll be having a really good look into exactly how they get hold of your details in the first place.
Coming up, how e-mail hackers were able to help themselves to a fortune when this man was selling his house.
In total, there was £333,000 went missing.
And the student conned by an online job that simply didn't exist.
My gut reaction was, "Oh, I've been so stupid.
" I was told that the money would probably never be returned.
Every year our inbox is absolutely full of complaints from people who feel either overwhelmed or just plain irritated by the sheer deluge of junk and scam mail that lands on their doorstep.
And one of the questions we're asked most often is how it is that whoever's sending it out got hold of your details in the first place.
Well, I went to Belfast to meet one of the teams who are cracking down on scam mail.
Indeed, they've already seized mail containing money before it even reaches the scammers.
There's a list of people whose names have been compiled by fraudsters They're very devious, the way they work.
.
.
people who've fallen victim to sophisticated scams, to get-rich-quick schemes and to bogus prize draws.
I was totally devastated.
Devastated.
I felt so silly.
The list of names is real.
It's bought and sold around the world and used to exploit people here in the UK.
It's known as a "suckers list" and I've come to a village near Belfast to find out what can happen if you're on it.
Crooks came up with the name, but officials prefer not to use the word "sucker", and that's because victims can feel angry and too ashamed to talk about being tricked.
But the couple that I'm about to meet ARE prepared to talk about their experience, as between them, they have been scammed out of almost £27,000.
Jimmy Mallon is a GP and his wife Helen is a retired teacher -- not people you would expect to be easily fooled.
But it seems certain they are on a widely-distributed suckers list, because every day they're being hounded with unwanted calls and letters.
And though now they try and ignore them, some of the earlier cold calls were so plausible that Jimmy spent thousands buying worthless land in Brazil after being contacted by a scammer with a British accent who promised to double his money.
I've got the certificates here.
£5,000, or nearly £5,000, on 9th July and then 20,000 on 25th July.
Are you convinced that you actually bought something? I think we did buy something.
But some of the plots were scrubland, 250 miles away from anywhere, so That looks as though it's going to be just a total waste of money.
- How do you feel about that? - Awful.
Silly.
Embarrassed.
His wife, Helen, fell victim to a separate phone scam, sending off £1,200 in fees to claim an £8,500 lottery prize that didn't exist.
I suppose, like Jimmy, I saw the chance of having extra money.
And our daughter was getting married the next August, as well.
I was thinking, "Oh, happy days!" This would be easy to spend.
Jimmy and Helen's story is shocking.
But the £27,000 that they've lost is a drop in the ocean.
Trading Standards say in the UK 200,000 people are on the suckers list, meaning that millions of pounds are falling into the hands of scammers every year.
So they've begun the process of warning the people that they fear may be on a suckers list.
But because of the sheer numbers involved, not everyone is going to be contacted.
Belfast Trading Standards officer Beverley Burns has been working with the Royal Mail to stop as many of those who've been targeted as she can from losing their money.
I'm just going to take you into our live evidence store and let you have a look at post which we seized from a postal box in Belfast.
'They've intercepted the responses people have unwittingly sent to 'what has been identified as a scammer's address.
' Wow! We have 22,000 letters.
Each of these contain cash, postal orders and cheques and they amount to £300,000.
This was four weeks' post going to one scammer.
If all of this is the product of just four weeks' post to one scam operation in one city, Belfast, imagine the size of the problem if you multiply this by every scam in operation throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.
Beverley is part of a new national scam scheme set up to help combat the scammers, and the sort of cons that she comes across could well be the ones that are also dropping through your letterbox.
Well, they send them letters in the post saying they've won the lottery or asking them to enter the lottery and they're sending them catalogues.
Now, attached to those catalogues will be letters which will indicate that you've won a prize -- a large sum of money.
But in order to get the prize, you have to place an order from their catalogue.
The people who do place the orders, they get the goods, but they never get the prize draws.
And there's an even darker side.
Beverley wanted to show me a letter supposedly sent by a clairvoyant.
It was found in the home of a woman who was driven to suicide due to the unrelenting harassment that she received from scammers.
It was written to scare her into sending money.
"You are the victim of a spell.
"A dark-haired woman is working against you in the shadows.
"The dark-haired woman is holding a photograph of you in one hand, "and in the other, a needle.
"Beverley, it is urgent to act.
"These influences are harmful to you.
"To stop all these pranks, "I'm going to stop this dark-haired woman using a counter-spell.
" Back page, send £24 and they're going to perform -- wait for it -- free of charge, an emergency ritual by telepathy.
That is hideous.
Beverley spends much of her time visiting people throughout Northern Ireland whose names, it appears, have ended up on the suckers list.
Most people are shocked to learn that their name is on a suckers list and their details are being shared right around the world between international scammers.
- Most will accept the advice that I give.
- Which is? - Not to respond.
Beverley undoubtedly does a fantastic job, helping victims and potential victims of scams to understand the dangers so that they don't fall for the fraudsters' convincing lies.
But does she have the powers she needs to pursue the criminals involved? I personally believe that the law could be a bit tighter.
It's going to take an international team from right around the world to get on top of this because you need to act very quickly in order to track down the money and these scammers.
With no prospect of an international task force on the horizon, Beverley reiterated the simple advice that should stop anyone from being taken in.
If you're getting letters through the door saying you've won large sums of money, don't believe them.
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is? - It really is, it really is.
- Yes.
So ignore anything that is unsolicited that comes through the post or via your telephone? Post, telephone, text messages and e-mails.
You just need to be careful of the whole lot because once you send your first £5 off to a scam, that's you onto the list and you will be targeted repeatedly.
The Information Commissioner has promised that he will take action on all illegally-held data such as names, addresses and telephone numbers.
But the nub of the problem is that while the crime may be committed here, the perpetrators, the scammers, could be anywhere in the world.
Now, it's only through the letters and e-mails you very kindly send us here at Rip-Off Britain that we discover the latest devious methods that scammers and fraudsters use to con you out of your money.
Whether it's by impersonating you or some elaborate scam duping you into handing over your details, they can be as ingenious as they are shameless.
And we thought we'd heard it all until we came across this next story which has to be one of the most alarming you've ever sent us.
The criminals in this case had come up with a way of intercepting some very important e-mails and it almost cost one family the entire proceeds of selling their home.
When Paul Lupton from Stoke-on-Trent was selling his property in London in 2014, the last thing he expected was to be a victim of crime.
Well, I owned a flat in London which my daughter was living in.
She was expecting and her and her boyfriend wanted to buy their own larger house.
So I put the property up for sale.
The firm of solicitors Paul was using to complete the sale had handled two of his previous house purchases, so he knew and trusted them.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, completion was expected at the end of the month.
And when Paul received an e-mail from the solicitors two days before completion asking him to confirm his bank details, there didn't seem any reason why that might be a problem.
The solicitor and I had exchanged e-mails a lot, there was no chain, so I knew she needed my bank account and when she asked for it, I just re-clicked on reply, sent my sort code and my account number.
But, though he didn't yet know it, Paul's e-mail account had been hacked.
All his messages, contacts and, crucially, his e-mail address were now in the hands of criminals intent on defrauding him.
So, using that information and posing as Paul, the hackers were then able to send another message to the solicitors from Paul's e-mail address asking them to disregard the previous bank account details he'd sent and instructing them to send the money from the sale of the flat to a different bank account instead.
I had no idea that my e-mails had been hacked.
I would say I'm quite a careful person when it comes to e-mail and fraud and I'm always on the lookout, but on this occasion, there was nothing to make me feel suspicious.
Over the next two days, before completion, the hackers exchanged e-mails with the solicitors five times.
All the while, Paul had no idea any of this was going on.
I got a phone call about ten o'clock to say everything had gone through and about two hours later, I checked my bank account.
The money hadn't arrived.
I didn't feel that there was anything to be worried about other than it was annoying that there was a delay.
Paul e-mailed the solicitors to see what the hold-up was.
But of course, this contact was immediately intercepted by the hackers who still had full access to his messages.
In an attempt to divert his attention from the crime and buy themselves more time, the criminals replied to Paul posing as the solicitor's secretary, reassuring him that although they'd missed the deadline, the money would be with him on the Monday.
But when Monday came and went, with still no signs of the cash in his account, Paul began to feel frustrated with the solicitors.
I received an e-mail on Monday morning.
I thought it was from the solicitor and it said that we're very sorry, there'd been an error in inputting the account number and there'd be a further delay until the Tuesday before I got my money.
I was so angry at this I immediately e-mailed back and I copied in the secretary's boss, who was a partner in the firm, and I said, "How has this mistake happened? Who made the mistake?" So this time, Paul had copied in a partner at the firm of solicitors and she immediately smelt a rat.
She immediately picked up the phone and said to me, "We believe fraud has happened here.
" She encouraged me to get off the phone as quickly as possible and contact the bank and the police and said that they would do the same.
But as the day went on and as we went into the next day, it just seemed to get worse and worse.
Despite there being proof that fraud HAD taken place, Paul was horrified to discover that because it was HIS e-mail that had been hacked, the solicitors didn't consider that they shared any responsibility for what had happened.
On the next day, I got a phone call from a senior partner in the law firm and he said to me that they had done nothing wrong.
They'd acted on the instructions from me, from my e-mail address and transferred the money into the account that I'd asked them to do.
It seemed that Paul, through no fault of his own, had now lost £333,000 and there was nothing he could do about it.
Nobody was saying what I wanted them to say, which was, "Don't worry, this will all get sorted out.
These things happen.
" In fact, absolutely the opposite.
I was being told by the bank and by the solicitor that they'd done nothing wrong.
So at that stage, it just looked pretty bad.
Over the next few days, Paul's bank was able to get the accounts of the criminals frozen, stopping them from getting their hands on most of Paul's money, though £63,000 had already been withdrawn by the hackers.
In total, there was £333,000 missing.
A few days after, I received notification that 270 had been recovered, which was a massive relief.
Because the fraud wasn't reported to them immediately, Paul's bank told him that it was only liable for funds withdrawn by the fraudsters after they were informed of the crime.
But there was some good news about his losses.
A few days later, I was told that outside the bank, in another bank, they had found about £10,000 which had been frozen.
So in total, my losses at the moment are of £48,500.
Paul firmly believes that his solicitors could have done more to stop the fraud happening.
He thinks the e-mail requesting his funds to be sent to a different account should have made them suspicious and they should have rung him to check it was genuine.
After all, in 2014, the Solicitors Regulation Authority had published guidance on cyber security, identifying hacking as an emerging risk.
And in June 2015, the SRA again warned solicitors that this type of fraud is escalating.
It urged law firms to understand the risks and take precautions as this is an issue that is not going away.
We contacted Paul's solicitors, Perry Hay & Co, who told us that while they have "every sympathy" with Paul's predicament, the facts remain that it was HIS e-mail that was hacked and their own systems were not breached or compromised in any way.
They also made clear that as soon as they became aware of the fraud, they reported it to the police and the bank.
We also got in touch with Paul's bank who reiterated that they had "thoroughly investigated this complaint" and acted in accordance with all regulations in reaching the decision that they are not liable for the funds withdrawn by the fraudsters before the bank was informed of the crime.
But Paul is angry that he's ended up £48,000 out of pocket through no fault of his own.
So he's taken his case to the legal ombudsman and while he waits for a decision, he remains both horrified and distressed about how the hackers were able to hijack his e-mails.
Knowing that my e-mail accounts have been hacked just leaves you feeling on edge all the time.
Not just transferring money to somebody or buying something on the internet, even just writing an e-mail to a friend, you're wondering if somebody else might be reading that e-mail.
So it just makes you feel uncomfortable.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain How fraudsters persuaded this man to keep investing in what turned out to be a multi-million pound scam.
Soon, I was sending in 40,000 and 50,000.
Towards the end I was putting in 100,000 at a time.
Our Rip-Off Britain pop-up shop is back and open for business.
- Hi, are you being looked after? - Yes, my wife, Liz.
Ah, hi, Liz.
How are you? This year, we were in Nottingham, giving you the opportunity to get free face-to-face advice from our top team of experts.
- Do keep an eye on the rules, because they're changing.
- Yeah.
And there may be a chance where you get to renegotiate your deal.
James O'Dell came to see if financial ombudsman Martin James could help him get his money back after his second-hand car broke down only weeks after he bought it.
I bought a car last June and about three weeks later it caught fire - when I was driving to work.
- It caught fire? - Yeah.
- My gosh.
- It sounds awful.
- As I was driving.
- So this was only three weeks after you'd bought the car? - Yeah.
- So, your insurance, did you make a claim on that policy? - Yeah, I did, yeah.
OK.
And how did that go? I lost over £500 from that on the valuation of the car.
Right, I see.
OK.
'After examining the car, the insurance company told James 'that it was a write-off, 'and although he'd paid £2,500 for it just three weeks earlier, 'his policy would only pay out 1,900, 'leaving him almost £600 out of pocket.
' We can get one of my colleagues to see if we can send a letter, maybe, to the insurance company, just to double-check if they've used the right valuation.
And maybe that might make a little bit of difference and it won't cost you any money to do that.
- So how does all that sound, James? - Great.
- Yeah? If anything can help then it's better than nothing.
- Well, that's what we're here for, isn't it? - Fantastic.
- Thank you very much.
Thanks for coming in.
- No problem.
And when Martin's team did contact James' insurance company to discuss his case, because James had only had the car for three weeks, his insurer has now agreed to pay out the extra £600.
Another great result.
And it wasn't just inside our shop where our experts were handing out advice.
Out in the shopping centre, lawyer Gary Rycroft was particularly keen to flag up a problem that an increasing number of us are storing up for the future.
What to do with all the photos and information that we might have saved online? - Do you know what your digital assets are? - No.
Blank faces all round.
What's a digital asset? It's the digital assets that have financial value, such as online bank accounts, the digital assets that have sentimental value, such as photographs that you may load up, and the digital assets that have social value, such as social media.
We're talking about what happens to those assets when you pass away.
- Have you got lots of digital assets on your telephone? - I have, yeah.
Photos, videos, music, all sorts.
- Do you know what to do with them? - No.
- Right.
Well, we're talking about the digital world but I actually think there's a lot to be said for good old-fashioned pen and paper.
So, write it all down on a digital directory and then there's a written record that can be found by your nearest and dearest after you've passed away.
And we can give some of these away.
- It's all free.
- It's all free.
The other really important thing to do, Angela, is make a will.
Because if you make a will, your executors, the people you name in your will to look after your estate after you've died, they have the legal authority to track down all of these assets and pass them on to your beneficiaries.
And if you don't do any of this, what's likely to happen? - It's likely to be chaos.
- Is this anything you've ever thought about? - No, not at all.
Not at all.
- Will you think about it now? - I will, yeah.
- I tell you what - Thank you very much! - .
.
why don't you hand those out? - Thank you.
There's a lot of them there.
Hand them out to everybody.
And you can download Gary's digital directory from our website .
.
where you'll also find plenty of other tips and advice from the rest of our team of experts.
Now, over the years on Rip-off Britain, we've become rather used to the idea that scammers will always find a way to target anybody, and here's a way they can do it to target young people who are desperate to get their first foot onto the jobs ladder.
Now, we were contacted by one young lady who's determined to make sure that what happened to her doesn't catch out anyone else in the same way.
19-year-old Chloe McCombe thought she had it all worked out.
Coming to the end of her first year at Ulster University, she was looking to get a taste of holding down a job and earn some much-needed cash.
I think work experience is really important on a CV because it shows that you've had the initiative to go out and find work.
Chloe had a very clear idea of the type of work she was after.
Working abroad was definitely something I wanted to do, just as a way of earning money and getting to travel.
I like working with children so I thought an au pair job would be really good.
After a quick search online, Chloe came across a site called easyaupair.
com, where she'd be able to post her CV in the hope that families around the world would be up for hiring her.
And while Chloe was really excited about what opportunity might come up, her mum, Ruth, was naturally worried about the prospect of her daughter working abroad for the summer.
I was nervous because she'd never been away on her own before, and I told Chloe just to be careful, to make sure that she knew where she was going, who she was going with, was the website legit.
As an au pair, Chloe was expecting that in exchange for board, lodging and a small allowance, she would take responsibility for childcare and some housework.
And it wasn't long before she received a number of responses to her online post from places like France, Spain, Australia and, indeed, one from America.
Getting so many responses was great because it built up my confidence that people were interested in having me and hosting me.
The dates Chloe could be away didn't match either of the European positions, so she responded by e-mail to the placement in America, and it wasn't long before she was contacted by what appeared to be the host family themselves.
The person Chloe heard from called herself Sarah Nicole.
She claimed to be from New York and described herself as a married mother of two children aged seven and nine.
When she sent me the picture of herself and her children, I was really excited to go.
Given the trust involved in letting a stranger look after your kids, Chloe thought it was perfectly reasonable when Sarah Nicole asked to do an interview over the internet.
My first impressions were that she was very nice.
Her English in the e-mails wasn't that good, but whenever I had the Skype interviews, her spoken English was very good.
After the interview, it was agreed that Chloe would fly out on Saturday 16th August for one month.
All she needed to do was to get a visa and her flight, and Sarah Nicole claimed that she knew just the person to do this, putting Chloe in touch with a Mrs Simpson.
I was told by her that all I needed to do was pay some money and she would get the visa and the immigration documents done.
Mrs Simpson told Chloe that her visa would cost 480 but on top of that, Chloe had paid Sarah Nicole nearly 1,000 for her flights.
Both needed to be paid directly via Western Union.
I saved most of the money myself.
My mum and dad did pay for some of it, but most of it was mine or from my student loan.
Once she'd sent the money, Chloe was sent a confirmation e-mail for her flights and what looked like a visa.
With the arrangements apparently in place, Chloe's mum wanted to know more about the area where her daughter would be living.
But when they looked up the address online, they were shocked to discover that Sarah Nicole's supposed home looked like it was up for sale.
It was the first time I had checked out her credentials away from e-mails.
I'd just never thought of doing that before, because she seemed so genuine and so legit that I didn't think of googling her or anything.
But Chloe did then start doing more research and as she dug deeper, she found warnings against online scams that listed both Sarah Nicole's name and e-mail address, making it clear that what she'd been told was a lie.
It seemed there was no genuine Sarah Nicole.
My gut reaction was, "I've been so stupid!" You know, how could I have believed her? But at the same time, I was a bit confused because I had had a Skype interview with her.
I had seen her, I had heard her.
When Chloe had another look at the Easy Au Pair site, she saw a page called Anti Scam Programme, with warnings about people posing as someone needing an au pair but who turned out to be scammers waiting to trick people like Chloe out of their money by taking cash for flights and then cancelling them and sending out fake visas.
In disbelief, Chloe contacted the police, but because she had paid by Western Union, it was clear there wasn't very much they could do.
I was told that the money would probably never be returned to me because of the way it was transferred.
I was upset for Chloe because she had been so enthusiastic and so eager about this job in America.
She'd really set her heart on it.
Still unwilling to believe that she had been scammed, Chloe says she tried e-mailing the mysterious Sarah Nicole again to find out exactly what was going on.
She just sort of tried to reassure me that everything was OK, that I should still come to America, that everything would be OK.
I did accuse her outright of being a scam and being not real, and she did get a bit defensive and uptight about it.
But Chloe was no longer convinced.
In fact, further research online showed that the supposed Sarah Nicole had also sent out almost identical e-mails, the same photographs, jobs, ages and children's names to a number of other hopeful au pairs.
But they were not all sent using the name Sarah Nicole.
Others went out under a variety of different aliases.
We tried to contact Sarah Nicole by e-mail and post, but we heard nothing back.
Our attempts to reach Mrs Simpson also went unanswered.
But the American Embassy in London has confirmed that the visa details that Chloe was given were fake.
And when we got in touch with the Easy Au Pair website, where Chloe had first made contact with Sarah Nicole, no-one got back to us either.
But as we've seen earlier, they do have clear warnings about scams on the website.
But it's clear that students and job-seekers like Chloe can be easy, easy pickings for scammers.
Sussex Police recently warned that fraudsters were deliberately targeting youngsters looking for jobs online.
Chloe, sadly, never got to go on her dream trip to America.
Instead, she worked last summer at a local kids camp.
But now, after losing £1,500, she and her mum, Ruth, have learned a very harsh lesson about how far some people will go to make a scam seem plausible.
I know she was disappointed but whenever you see all this goodness.
I'm just so glad she's at home.
Next, an utterly cynical and heartbreaking scam that we've featured on the programme many times in the past.
It involves vast amounts of money and leaves people seriously out of pocket, so why is it still able to happen? Well, that's exactly the question that one of our viewers asked, so we felt we really had to try and find out.
These meadows might look like any other field in the English countryside, but there was a time when this land came with the promise of huge financial returns for canny punters looking to steal a march on the property developers.
Retired cruise ship manager Peter Pratt from Ripon in North Yorkshire was one investor sucked in by what seemed a perfect opportunity.
I was at sea for just over 42 years.
I was a hotel general manager on cruise ships.
Certainly, it was quite a responsible job because it's a bit like running a small town.
Before he stopped work in October 2010, Peter wanted to make sure that he had arrangements in place to truly make the most of his retirement, so he was open to ideas on how to best invest his life savings.
I started feeling a bit panicky, I suppose, in that I was suddenly going to go from a pretty reasonable salary to a pension, but I did wonder how I was going to keep up my standard of living.
He had savings but was concerned that they weren't growing.
Although I had money in ISAs and shares and bonds, they really weren't doing anything.
Peter's interest was pricked when he received a cold call from a company called Plott UK Ltd, offering him an opportunity to invest in land in Bedfordshire or Northamptonshire.
Plott UK were offering to sell me plots of land which at the time didn't have planning permission, but these plots of land were going to be bought by a large property developer.
And they sent me their glossy brochure and it all looked aboveboard.
As I'd invested in land before, I felt relatively comfortable with it.
The Plott UK representative told Peter that the land he was interested in buying was earmarked to be turned into a housing development.
This, he was told, meant that if he moved quickly, he could eventually sell on the land for around three times what he'd pay for it now.
My initial reaction to the offer was one of excitement, really.
I suppose particularly because the government were making such a noise about the fact that, you know, they were below their target.
Everything seemed to fit in.
Convinced by the slick sales patter, Peter decided to go full steam ahead, paying £10,000 for his high-value land.
But not long after, the Plott UK broker who handled his purchase, a Mr Harry Nelson, began to pressurise Peter into buying further plots.
Harry Nelson was calling me three to four times a week, building up a position of trust.
He told Peter that the property developer would want to buy out the larger investors first.
So, therefore, the more money I put in, the quicker I would be able to, um, be able to sell my plots to the developer and I would be able to realise my investment.
Persuaded that the way to realise his promised returns was to keep investing, Peter's payments to the company kept going up and up.
Gradually, the amounts requested increased.
Soon I was sending in 40,000 and, uh, then 50,000.
And, um towards the end, I was putting in 100,000 at a time.
Peter bought a total of 28 plots, costing him over half a million pounds.
But despite being told that he'd done everything he needed to do in order to turn his investment into gold, paying such an eye-watering amount was making him decidedly uncomfortable.
Towards the end, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable regarding the amount of money that I had put in.
I was beginning to have suspicions.
However, I think I was probably in denial that I could be so .
.
stupidly had, if you like.
His anxiety started to grow when Harry Nelson stopped answering his phone.
Just four weeks after Peter had made his last investment, Mr Nelson was nowhere to be found.
And the next that Peter heard about the company was when a letter arrived in the post from the Financial Services Authority, now known as the Financial Conduct Authority.
In short, this told Peter that the land he'd purchased was, in fact, worthless and that he'd fallen victim to an elaborate land banking scam.
I felt sick, numb .
.
almost suicidal, really, as I realised what I'd done to not only myself but my family.
I couldn't believe that I'd been a victim of such fraud.
It's obviously left us in a very difficult financial position and also a position of trust between my wife and myself.
So things will never, ever really be the same.
Peter and his family had lost over half a million pounds.
Worst of all, it's unlikely that they'll ever see any of his money again.
The company, Plott UK Ltd, were not registered with the FCA, meaning that there is no way that Peter can apply for compensation.
I think the basic problem I had was greed.
Harry Nelson obviously had done his homework and I was definitely greedy.
It sounded, uh, it sounded too good an opportunity to miss.
Harry Nelson had clearly not just targeted Peter.
There were over 100 investors, and this large-scale scam was brought to court by the FCA in January of 2015.
The fraudsters were convicted in what is now a landmark case where it was established that they had scammed investors out of a total of £4.
3 million.
And Harry Nelson, whose real name, it turned out, was Aaron Petrou, was jailed for five years for his part.
Along with seven of his colleagues, the fraudsters were jailed for a total of 26 years.
Obviously, the sentences, as far as I'm concerned, don't really match the enormity, certainly of what they've done to me.
The FCA, for their part, hope that this prosecution will act as a warning to others.
Cases of so-called land banking fraud are attractive to scammers, who are eager to take advantage of people's desire to make a quick buck in the property market.
We estimate that land banking schemes have cost UK investors over 200 million.
On the face of it, the FCA doesn't regulate land.
What we do regulate, however, is collective investment schemes.
Collective investment schemes means that your money is pooled with the money of other investors so, using that legislation, we were able to identify this as a scam and get those criminal convictions that we needed.
Despite the high-profile convictions of the Plott UK scam, it doesn't seem to have put off other criminals.
Peter believes that he has been targeted again by a company offering to take his worthless plots of land off his hands in return, of course, for a fee.
They are offering approximately 50% of what I paid for them.
However, the way there scam works is that they wish you to pay about £5,000 upfront for their administrative costs.
And if you ever paid that, that's the last you'd hear of it.
Of course, Peter reported this company to the FCA, and they have advice on what to do if you are targeted in the same way that he was.
People will make huge promises of fantastic, guaranteed returns.
That's often one of the ways to spot a scam.
Put the phone down on any cold call making promises that seem too good to be true.
If you're still tempted, I would advise you to do your homework, so check our FCA website, check our register.
If it's a land banking scheme, check your local council, look at the small print.
You can't be too cautious.
Peter still can't quite believe that he was taken in by such a scam.
And now, with no money left to pay off his mortgage, he's facing a very different retirement to the one that he'd planned.
If I could turn the clock back, which obviously I can't .
.
I would have left my investments as they were -- boring and rather unproductive, but at least the money was there.
I shouldn't have been so greedy and I very much regret what has happened.
Here at Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.
Confused over your bills or feel you're paying well over the odds? It's far too small and it's done on purpose so that you can't actually read it.
People look at it and they'll say, "I can't be bothered reading that.
" Are you unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out and that so-called great deal has ended up costing you money? People are buying into this.
I did, you know.
And are they going to be as awkward with them as they were with me? You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share your story with us so that other people don't do the same thing.
Just fobbed off completely and very disappointed.
Well, you can write to us at Or you can send us an e-mail The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Well, hopefully today we've given you some really practical and useful pointers so that you will know what to watch out for when and if the scammers have got you in their sights.
But of course, sadly, the reality is that they are constantly coming up with new variations or finding sneaky and ingenious ways to hack into the latest technology.
And that's where you come in.
We rely on you to tip us off about the latest scams you come across.
And remember, if you're the one who's been caught out, there's no need to feel embarrassed or that you've been foolish.
Scams are, unfortunately, big business so if you've fallen for one, you're in good company.
But having said that, the sums of money involved in some of those stories, I think, are just shocking.
And it's because the fraudsters are so good at covering their tracks that, more often than not, they simply get away with it.
But we can make it a lot more difficult for them by ensuring that we're on our guard and wise to their latest tactics, so a lot of pointers to take away today.
I'm afraid that's where we have to leave it for this programme, but we'll see you for more Rip-Off Britain stories very soon.
- So, until then, from all of us and all the team, bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.