e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.ukThe Financial Services Authority is writing to more than 76,000 individuals warning them that they be targeted with offers of fraudulent investments in land or shares. Their names have been found on lists in the offices of a number of firms the watchdog is currently investigating for unauthorised and potentially criminal activity. The watchdog began sending the letters and emails out to everyone on the list at the end of April. By now most should have arrived. If you have got one do not ignore it. It contains useful advice about how to avoid being scammed again. But the golden rule is that if anyone calls you out of the blue with an investment offer – ignore it. Once you respond you could be drawn into a complex fraud that could eventually take all your money.
Operation Bexley, as it is called, is the latest attempt by the FSA to clamp down on increasingly sophisticated criminals determined to part us from our cash. They prey on anyone with a bit of money and not much experience who they can fool into believing there is an easy way to use their money to make more. These crooks particularly target people who have come into some money recently such as a redundancy payment or an inheritance. They also go for those who have recently retired and are relying on money they have saved up for years, or newly widowed women or men.
Four kinds of scam are mentioned in the warning leaflet issued by the FSA.
· Share fraud: Calls from someone who knows what shares you own offering to help you buy others, usually in America, with a deal that you have to agree to quickly. The shares usually do not exist. Average loss £20,000.
· Land banking: An offer to buy part of a site with a promise of big returns when it is built on. The land will not be suitable for development.
· Carbon credit trading: One of several ‘green’ investment scams which can begin with a plan to plant or harvest trees to generate the credits.
· Fine wine: The crooks hide among the legitimate wine traders. Not for the amateur. Estimated loss over last four years – £100 million.
Protecting yourself against any of these scams is very easy – just say no. And if you have been fooled before you will be targeted again. Say ‘no’ this time.
If you are worried about a scam or fraud call the FSA 0845 155 6355 or look at the website www.fsa.gov.uk/scams/operationbexley
Check your council
tax band
Most councils have frozen their council tax this year but with
the average in England well over £1000 it can still be a big problem for many
people. So it is worth asking if your home is in the right council tax band. An
estimated 400,000 are not and tens of thousands have been rebanded downwards in
recent years.
First, check the band of similar homes in your street. You can do that by putting in your postcode at www.voa.gov.uk in England or www.saa.gov.uk in Scotland. (In Wales and Northern Ireland valuation has been done more recently and is less likely to be wrong).
If your home banding is the same or below similar homes then you do not have a case.
Second, check if the band your home is in seems about right. The bands were fixed in April 1991 so you have to work out your home’s value then. You can get an estimate of what your home was worth then by checking its current price at www.nethouseprices.com and then putting that figure into www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi. Pick your region, put in the current price. For Date 1 put 2012 Q1 and for Date 2 put 1991 Q2. When you have got the value in April 1991 check out what band it should have been put in be in at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_Tax#Current_bands
If the value of your home in 1991 puts it in the right band then, again, you probably do not have a case for rebanding.
But if your neighbours are paying less AND it seems that your home was put in too high a band in 1991 then it is worth asking for it to be reviewed. If your home was in too low a band then it will be moved up and you – and possibly your neighbours – will have to pay more tax. Contact the listing officer in England or the assessor in Scotland – find out your local office at www.voa.gov.uk/where/index.htm or www.saa.gov.uk/saacontacts.php .
If the band your home is in is reduced then the cut in your council tax – probably between £100 and £200 a year – will be backdated to when you moved in – or 1993 if you moved in before that. If your home is moved up a band the change will only happen for the future. But do try to avoid that!
There is a guide at www.moneysavingexpert.com/council
Unfranked stamps
The cost of the cheapest postage stamp is now ten shillings (50p for younger
readers). And if you want the letter to have a fighting chance of arriving
tomorrow it will cost you 60p. If the letter happens to be slightly bigger than
normal then those prices rise to 69p and 90p. So it is no surprise that there is
a large – but illegal – trade in what are called ‘unfranked’ stamps.
These are stamps that have been used and passed through the postal system but have not been franked with a cancellation stamp showing where they were sorted. These stamps have already been used to send a letter so using them again is illegal. Royal Mail says it is fraud.
Selling unfranked stamps – even in bulk – is not illegal as long as they are sold to collectors and are not to be used again. People who sell them on the internet will always have a disclaimer to that effect. But anyone tempted to buy unfranked stamps with the intention of re-using them is committing a crime and could be prosecuted.
Of course there are legitimate reasons why stamps can be cut off an envelope and re-used – perhaps you stuck them on a letter or parcel and then for whatever reason did not send it. That is perfectly legal as the stamp has not already been used. But re-using stamps that have been through the postal system does break the law. And dealing in them for that purpose as buyer or seller is a crime.
e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk