Episode 1 Rip Off Britain

Next on BBC One Gloria Hunniford, Angela Rippon and Julia Somerville

are standing by ready to tackle all your consumer problems.

Every morning we are here lies investigating the stories you have

asked us to look into on your behalf.

We are looking forward to that. We are kicking off with how fraudsters

helped themselves to my savings. Question is, how safe is your cash?

We asked you to tell us what is in you -- what is leaving you feeling

ripped off. You told us about the company using

get it wrong and the customer service which simply isn't up to

scratch. When you have to call them it takes ages. Some of the other

answers the phone and they don't know what you are saying. The

customer isn't benefiting and I'm not getting value for money. You've

asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate

the extra charges you say are unfair. They don't deserve to be in

any form of business whatsoever, they just want shutting down. And

when nobody else is to blame you come to us to help others do not

fall into the same trap. They took the money out of my account and I

don't even know who's camped me. Whether it is a blatant rip-off or a

genuine mistake, we're here to find out why you are out of pocket on

what you can do about it. Your stories, your money, this is

Rip Off Britain: Live. Good morning and thank you for

joining us for a brand new series of the Rip Off Britain: Live. Good to

have you. This is one of our most favourite times of the year.

Absolutely. Adrenaline pumping. Delighted to be back to talk about

the issues you say matter most to you.

That could be anything from a dodgy energy bill to an elaborate scam.

Our team of experts are fantastic, they are keen as mustard to help you

out. We are alive, which means you can

get in touch with us right away while we are on the air.

Please do send us your questions, comments, and your tips. We will be

sharing some of your ideas on giving cold callers the cold shoulder later

on. Also coming up, after my own recent

experience I have been finding out if banks are doing all they can to

keep our money safe. Believe me, I have very strong views about that.

You can believe that. He may be one of the nicest men in broadcasting,

but Jeremy Vine is going to tell me how he has found the perfect way to

complain about bad service. Good for him. And back by popular

demand, our one-stop pop up shop where our experts will have advice

for you. We have our finance Guru. And our

technology with David MacLennan. Send them your questions.

A busy morning ahead of us, clearly. First, given the amount of scams we

expose on this programme it's no surprise to hear that financial

fraud went up by over 50% in the first six months of this year.

But, as we know from the hundreds of people who get in touch with us

every year, behind every statistic is a very personal story.

Very personal, because this one is mine!

As a presenter I've reported on just about every sort of scamming -- scam

imaginable. And hearing those affected and the devastating impact

the scams have on people's lives has certainly made me extra vigilant.

So, the last thing I expected was to find myself on the other side of the

story when I had part of my life savings stolen from the place where

I thought they would be most safe. This is my local bank in Kent where

I live. I thought my savings were tucked up very nicely in a savings

account which I had not touched for nearly two years. But it turned out

it was easier for complete strangers at a different branch of this bank

to get my money than it is for me to get my money. In June last year, 30

miles away from Croydon, three people found a way to corrupt part

of my savings which amounted to ?120,000. Not by a sophisticated

scam, but by walking in off the street with a fake ID and a made up

story. According to the woman claiming to be me she said she had a

few bob in the bank but had been ill. She wanted her grandson to be a

co-signatories so he could draw money from my account. She then

presented a fake driving licence and a bank card and that was that. --

co-signatory. The group had almost instant access to my savings. The

newspapers referred to this woman athlete Gloria lookalike, which

actually I found very funny. As somebody said online, I think Gloria

should be more worried about the lookalike band the money. But I

think you can agree that she looks nothing like me. Not in a million

years would I expect everybody to know who I am and what I look like.

I totally get that you don't have to dress up in order to look like

somebody to impersonate them. But I would expect that the banks would

carry out stringent security checks before they literally handed over

tens of thousands of pounds to a stranger. Within a short time of

leaving the bank, they began a huge spending spree buying ?80,000 worth

of luxury watches as well as clothes. The question I keep asking

myself, why was it so easy for somebody else to get their hands on

my money when I have to jump through so many security hoops when I forget

a password? Even if I go up to take out and I said, I have to bring my

passport on various pieces of identity. -- if I go to take out a

ISA. If my husband went in asking to be a co-signatory they would say it

would not work like that, but it did work though strangers. The man who

posed as the grandson, 18-year-old Alan Dowie, received a sentence. The

judge said he hadn't received a penny piece out of the crime and

accepted that he was a dude in the scam. And a fourth person, another

18-year-old, pleaded guilty to laundering some of my money.

However, police are still appealing for information that would lead to

the rest of my so-called lookalike and her daughter. That was one of

the worst things for me because sadly I don't have my daughter, she

lost her battle with cancer 12 years ago, and that really hurt. Because

this was so obviously a fraud I wasn't able to get all of my money

back but really that isn't the point. It is the principal. -- I was

able. Personally I have lost all faith in banks. My big question is,

are they really doing enough to keep every customer's money safe? That is

exactly the question these two are asking. Just three months ago they

were the target of a very similar crime. And I find out from a fraud

expert whether banks are protecting us as well as they should. Losses

from bank accounts, people sending money off to scams runs into

hundreds of millions, if not billions. Fraud is enormous.

That is a story that has shocked thousands of people who have been

aware of it. I think that film demonstrates that it throws up more

questions than answers. It does. It's very disturbing. The

more you question it the more disturbed you get. It disturbs me

that two of the people are still missing. It was the scammer's bank

that alerted it, not my own bank. Bearing in mind that money has been

locked away and I haven't touched it the two years, wouldn't you think if

unusual activity came up on it that my bank would ring me. But it was

the fraudster's bank who got in contact.

That is what you would expect. Santander SA they take fraud

seriously and it is constantly reviewing its policies and systems

to prevent it. -- Santander say. They say regrettably in this case

its procedures were not followed. I'll say! Allowing it to occur. It

is sorry for the inconvenience and stress it caused, but stresses that

any customer who is the victim of fraud through no fault of their own

will not lose out financially. How convinced you that the bank is doing

something to protect people's money? I'm not at all. I'm now suspicious

or banks. Now I don't know where to put my money. Santander rang me up,

and I had been calling them endlessly to get information, but

they took me into the bank to show me their new technology in the

morning. But this is 2016, why are you putting it in now after my scam,

because it got high publicity, why did you not do it before? UV light,

which was stated in the High Court, it doesn't prevent anything. Yet

they took that as security. They said that the correct procedures

were not followed. The questions on the basic security forms were not

completely filled in. Because the girl in the court said she was three

months pregnant. That was the excuse. Many questions.

I think we can all tell that you are really distressed by this.

I am. My youngest said you have got your money back, while you worried?

I said of course I am worried, I make my money on covering scams.

It's the principle. Exactly. We would like to know what

you think about that story. Keep your comments coming because we

would like to read them out. It is through your e-mails and

letters that we get a sense of the things that really irritate you the

most. If there is one topic that leaves you especially steamed up, it

is the dreaded cold callers. It annoys all of us. You are an

imaginative bunch. It seems some of you give as good as you get whenever

the phone rings and it is somebody unwelcome on the other end.

Currently I'm using dog's names. They asked for my name and I call

myself Jack Russell. Sorry, I don't live here, I am a decorator. My name

is Mr Powell Satian. I say in an exotic country and they normally

hang up on me. -- Mr Al Satian. It appears that you are an inventive

bunch. They are not only annoying but can also lead to many of the

rip-offs you tell us about. Whatever the tactic we are pleased to hear

you are fighting back. There is a long way to go. The body that

regulates marketing calls, the information Commissioner 's office,

typically receives more than 14,000 complaints every month. One man who

is fighting back is businessman Lee Beaumont. After being plagued with

constant calls he has come up with a rather extreme way of dealing with

them. And it is even making him money. He set up a second phone line

with a premium rate number. Whenever he has asked for his details on

anything which might lead to an unsolicited marketing call it is the

0871 number he gives out. What was winding me up is that they would

call me no matter what time of day it was. Even in the evening. I

wanted them to stop. I thought there must be a way to get them to stop.

He went online to find out ways to end the nuisance calls. I just

searched on the Internet. I did a bit of reading up on it. I realised

I could buy a premium rate number very cheaply. He paid ?10 to set up

his own premium rate line, which meant he had an de Witt 71 number.

So to call him would now cost the caller 10p per minute. -- he had an

0871 number. I hated the cause of Italy. Now I enjoy them because

every time they call me I am making money. At the start my calls dropped

dramatically. -- I hated the calls originally. For me it was the best

of both worlds. His premium rate line has made him almost ?4000. It

won't make me a millionaire. I am not quitting my job. But the

difference is I'm not getting annoyed every time they ring me. I

am enjoying it. If you are thinking of doing something similar, however,

a word of warning... There is a regulator which requires anybody

operating a premium rate number to make it clear to callers how much

they are being charged for the call. That is what he does. If you didn't

he would soon fall foul of the authorities. -- if he didn't. But

there are far more Orthodox ways of fighting back. All right, mum? OK.

12 months ago we told the story of Kath, who was being bombarded with

cold calls. Sometimes receiving more than 100 per month. She was getting

lots of pestering phone calls from various companies like PPI. Very

pressurised. And she is vulnerable and old. By fitting her phone with a

call blocking device which would only allow numbers through a

preapproved list we had a very positive result. Steve Smith owns a

company called true call and is the brains behind the technology. Over

the last here it blocked 277 unwonted calls for Kath. That is two

per day. We checked back through the logs to see which companies were

phoning her and they were all of the usual suspects. PPI course, accident

claims, the surveys, the vitamin pills. Many trading standards

officers loaned out his box free of charge to people like Cathy 's lives

are being made a misery by unwonted phone calls. -- like Kath whose

lives. In May it was made illegal requirement that marketing companies

registered in the UK must display their phone numbers, even if their

call centres are abroad. Making it easier for us to spot a nuisance

call. If you get a call that hasn't got a

caller ID shown, and it is a marketing call, make a note of their

details and you can then report to them. So if you are cursed by cold

callers, make sure you do something to fight back. Of course you can

just hang up or there is scope to be a little bit more creative. I kept

getting phone calls about an accident I had two years ago, which

I hadn't had. So I told them it was fatal and I died! She put the phone

down on me rather than me putting it down on them! They never rang back.

I wonder why! I like their style! As it happens, scams are making

headlines today. Look at this one, a mountain of scam letters. The

heartbroken son of a mother who lost thousands of pounds. Thankfully

trading standards are launching back against the scammers with a new

initiative to protect people most at risk. With me is Louise Baxter from

the trading standards scam team and also Tina Stewart, who has stepped

in to help a lot of people in her neighbourhood. What is behind this

idea? We have launched a campaign called

Scams... It Is About Talking Back If You Have Been Scammed And Getting

Neighbours To Be Nosy. I Am Interested In The Word Shame Because

It Is Interesting that people think it has happened to them but it could

happen to everyone. People have got to remember it is a crime. Scam is

the wrong word. It is a crime. People should not be ashamed that

they have been targeted by a criminal and fallen victim to a

crime. And it is the fact it happens in their own home and this is what

you brought you into this. Yes, I'll had an elderly neighbour who was

getting letters from the Irish lottery and the Spanish lottery and

he lost a lot of money. We took him to trading standards and he did not

believe he was being scammed at first but in time needed. He lost a

lot money. You had to persuade him? He thought he was going to win all

this money. In the end we were able to persuade him and help him. You do

other things, don't you? Yes, I go round and I help my neighbours and I

give talks to the WRI and whoever invites me, we will help. This is

just an example of the way word is being spread in the community.

Absolutely. Friends Against Scams, Tina would be a champion for us,

spreading the word about scamming and taking a stand against it.

Knowledge is power. We want to hear from you if you know of anyone like

Tina who is known locally as being some kind of consumer champion,

whether it is identifying scammers or helping people with their utility

bills. Let us know who they are and better yet sent as a photograph and

we will catch up with some of them later in the week, with a bit of

luck. What a good job they are doing. This week our team of experts

is here to tackle your consumer problems, no matter how big or small

and I love that. It is all live and they are literally outside.

Angela is out there getting things started. Come and see us if you

want. Thank you, Gloria. We are already getting stuck in and we have

a fistful of experts fear. The financial advice service, the

financial ombudsman service, along with our finance expert Sarah

Pebbles and technology man David McClelland. Our inbox is always full

of people who have been caught out by a scam. And this man has been on

the receiving end of a nasty one. Yes, a Microsoft support scam. You

get a cold call from a trusted service provider telling you your

computer has been hacked and the sinister twist here is they told you

there was a legal stuff on your machine and convinced you to part

with money. Did you pay them? Originally I parted with ?2.90,

which I thought would be a good price to pay to get rid of the

unwanted material, but unfortunately it didn't end there. How much did

you end up paying? Within the hour they took another ?840. Flipping

heck! How can we avoid this happening? Any incoming phone calls

purporting to be from Microsoft, internet service provider, whoever

else, treat them as toxic and a big lump of lies. You are in safe hands

here. David Creswell is from the financial ombudsman service. David,

are you aware of an increase in the number of complaints against banks?

Far more people are coming to us as soon as they discover, when they get

that gut-wrenching realisation that it has gone wrong. But interestingly

more people are coming with problems and concerns in the months

afterwards when they realise how long it will take to sort out the

fallout of things like this going wrong. Can you sort it out for them?

That is our job, to call the banks to account to find out what happens.

Stay at its! No pop-up would be complete without a personal finance

expert, Sarah Pebbles, and she is here with a retired fire man, an

old. He had had a problem with one of his power supplies. -- Noel. Yes,

we have heard about this lots of times. Noel was with NPower and the

problem occurred when they mixed up the day and night readings. They

said they would sort it out and he switched in the meantime to another

supplier. They produced a final bill and they said they owed him ?2800.

That must have given you some sleepless nights! It certainly has.

I am trying to get my son through university and we have just come

back from a family holiday and we have Christmas coming up. It was an

unfussy bill of nearly ?3000 and a demand to pay within two weeks, so

if you sleepless nights. Especially when it was their fault. But there

is a happy end to this. Funnily enough, when we got involved, NPower

looked at it and Noel owes them ?1400 and they got the wrong

information from the professional meter reader. As a goodwill gesture

they will write off the ?1400 and he doesn't owe them a penny. They have

been in trouble before for wrong bills and

not handling complaints. This time last year they were fined ?26

million by the regulator. It is worth keeping an eye on your bills.

I am glad we got a good outcome for you. That is the power of Rip Off

Britain. Back to you, Gloria. We love it when we get results on your

behalf. We have been trying to do that all week and we will get great

results all round, I am sure. All the stories we investigate actually

come from you, your letters and emails. This is the latest on two of

the most memorable cases from our recent series. A few weeks ago we

revealed how an awful lot of us could be driving the wrong type of

car. One third of UK motorists have a diesel. But if you mostly do stop

start town based driving, that is not the best option. Diesel cars are

not suitable for lots of short journeys. Dealers need to make sure

they understand what type of driving their customers are doing and then

make the appropriate recommendation. But when Gerald Williams from

Wrexham bought a brand-new diesel Ford focus, he said that wasn't his

experience at all. There wasn't much conversation in that area, whether

to buy petrol or diesel. It was just recommended, this car here. It was

only after an engine warning light came on that Gerald discovered a

problem common to most modern diesels. If you don't strive them

far enough, a filter installed to reduce emissions can get clogged. If

you have bought a diesel and you get the warning lights coming on, you

must take it for a decent run and get lots of engine revs to clear the

filter and you won't have problems. But Gerald is adamant that when he

bought the car, he told the sales staff how many miles he typically

drives and they still recommended a diesel. I do feel I was mis-sold it.

I am not saying it was deliberate, not intentionally done, but I do

believe I was mis-sold. The Evans house or dealership told us they

cannot comment on what was said to Gerald because the salesperson is no

longer with the company but after we filmed with him, there was good news

for Gerald. The company told us that with the assistance of Ford Credit,

they have reversed the vehicle deal, and as a result Gerald walked away

with the ?17,000 refund that he used to buy this petrol car. There has

been no such happy ending for one of the most shocking stories from our

latest series. Jackie had to run for her life and then watch as her home

went from this to this. The whole house collapsed after builders

started work on converting the basement of the ground floor flat. I

just think we were in shock, all of us. Just watching it unfold. We had

to stand on the street and watch it disintegrate. What made it worse was

that Jackie and her partner thought they had done all they could to find

a builder they could trust, choosing one signed up to the federation of

master builders, checking references, and even making sure he

had got the right insurance. We lost everything. It was just taken away

in skits as we were watching and there was no way to retrieve it. We

were not allowed back in. The couple has since won a court case proving

the builder was at fault but his insurance company has refused to pay

out, saying the builder broke the terms of his cover. We are really no

further forward than the day it collapsed. We know we were not at

fault, we know who was at fault, but financially we are in the same

position. Actually, worse off than we were when it first happened. To

top it all, Jackie and head are stuck with 23 years of mortgage

repayments on a property they cannot even live in. We have got ?125,000

left to play. There is not much else we can do really. Jackie is still

hoping to find a solution but in the meantime, several of you have been

in touch offering to help. One viewer has said he would be willing

to buy the plot of land and build a new house at his own expense. A

group of builders contacted us offering to rebuild the house and

supply the materials for free. But it remains very hard to understand

why it has been so difficult for this whole mess to be sorted out.

Yes, I have got to say that is one of the most upsetting cases I have

ever covered. That is a horror story about the kindness of strangers is

wonderful. What would frustrate me the most is there does not seem to

be an answer at the moment and that must drive you crazy when you think

about what they have lost. Meanwhile lots of consumer stories making the

news today. The energy companies, with the headline saying the big six

explored the loopholes so you don't get a good deal. New customers get

the good deals and loyal people like ourselves don't get the benefit of

that, so not good. Chase them up. Loyalty counts for nothing. From the

sublime to the ridiculous, at the other end of the scale there is

outrage that chocolate Oranges are getting smaller! Shock horror! They

are shrinking by 10%. That is outrageous! New figures have

pinpointed who is apparently most at risk from so-called boiler room

investment scams and guess who it is according to the Guardian newspaper?

Men aged 65 and over. Women over 65 would never fall for that! And

Gloria is in the Telegraph! No faith in banks after fraud and that is

pretty clear after the stories we have been running today. And they

are correct, no faith. It is not just me who has been targeted by

fraud. I have heard of so many stories since. But how sure can any

of us be that our money is safe in the bank? Earlier in the programme,

we saw how a so-called lookalike led a group of fraudsters to raid my

savings account. Bold as brass, they walked into the bank and convinced a

member of staff to give them access to my money. I would like to think

that was a one-off, but after hearing what happened to me,

Jonathan Lovett and his wife got in touch with Rip Off

Britain to say the very same thing happened to them. Like me, they were

blissfully unaware that they have become the victims of fraud, until

Barbie tried to use their debit card. I was driving home and I

needed petrol, so I stopped and filled up the car and I went to pay

with my joint account card, and it was declined. Then I went shopping

to get some food, and the same thing happened again. It was only when

Barbie arrived home and Jonathan checked their bank account online

that the truth became clear. I started looking down and scrolling

through the entries on the statement, and I saw ?5,000 and also

?4000 had been taken out of the account. Then I saw that ?10,000 had

been transferred from one account to another. I said this is

extraordinary! This can't be happening. In the space of a few

hours, the fraudsters had visited four separate branches of Barclays

and somehow they had managed to make seven cash withdrawals, totalling

?20,000, from the accounts. Desperate to stop them getting their

hands on any more of their money, Jonathan immediately called the bank

using the number on the back of his debit card. I explained what had

happened and I was told I needed to be transferred to another number and

it might take some time. Over the course of three and a half hours

there was a sense here that we were maybe responsible for this, either

because we had been negligent with the way we had used our cards and

revealed our PIN numbers, or maybe that we were complicit in the fraud.

Not only did we have the shock of losing the money but this situation

where the bank thinks maybe you were part of the scam.

During the process of reporting the theft they hit a brick wall when

they failed to correctly answer some of the security questions. At about

11pm we were left in limbo. The bank wouldn't talk to us any more. We

have to wait until 10am the next morning to get into the local

branch. We spent a sleepless night and turned up there like a couple of

zombies. This woman came up to greet us. I think both of us in an

emotional way said we've had ?20,000 stolen from our bank account and

that is how the conversation began. The start of a pretty harrowing

process to get the bank to admit the fraud had taken place and to make

the repayment into our account. One week later Barclay's Bank credited

their account with the ?20,000 which had been stolen, but the fraud case

is still ongoing. We've never been given any explanation about how the

fraud took place. None whatsoever. Who might have done it, how it was

structured, how many people might be involved, or whatever. Even though

it is something that happened to us. I don't feel happy about what has

happened at all. And I don't feel confident that it won't happen

again. We are thinking to ourselves, perhaps we ought to change our bank

account, but then you think, to who? Where? Is it going to be any better?

Fortunately the way in which we were both targeted is unusual, because

the vast majority of people would not have the audacity to walk into a

bank and clear out an account. Most fraud is done over the Internet by

faceless cybercriminals. Even so, it seems that over-the-counter bank

fraud is not as rare as we'd hoped. Just last week the professional now

jockeys Association warned its members not to keep their money in

high street banks after a string of thefts which saw around ?200,000

stolen from jockeys' accounts. Again, probably using fake ID.

Hello, lovely to see you. To see if the banks are doing enough to keep

our money says, I'm meeting up with David Clarke, once one of the

country's most senior fraud detectives are now part of the fraud

advisory panel which works to prevent such crimes from happening.

My account hasn't even been touched for nearly two years. Surely they

would have had something to alert them to the fact that this was

unusual activity. It does kind of say, there is something missing in

between here. Seeing people walk into branches, it is an old trick

that has come back. It needs to be blocked. In terms of the driving

licence that was produced as identity, it was my details, name,

address, but the fraudsters' photograph was on it. Now the police

say that it was probably made in a sitting room somewhere in an

upstairs bedroom, a complete fake. -- fraudster's photograph. How easy

is it to get that kind of stuff? Tragically, very easy. With

technology these days the ability to download from websites, fake utility

bills, passports... I got this this morning, here is a P 60, a utility

bill, a bank statement. They look authentic. They look real. These

would be difficult for a professional to identify. They are

excellent quality. This is what I fraudster needs to go in and open an

account. I often say to people, the UK, we are some of the global

leaders in technology. Some of the systems are excellent. But is that

rolled out, who was not available to? Banks will have it for certain

parts of their business. It works extremely well. Others won't. From

your case, from what I've read, there was a suggestion that the lady

put it under a UV light. Yes, in the Old Bailey she said that, is it a

proper test? I don't know what the bank's particular requirements are.

From what you've described, put it under a UV light, whether it is a

driving licence or a utility bill, it is not enough. Would it be fair

for me to say that banks with more money -- put more money into credit

card fraud than they do with locked away accounts like mine? Losses from

bank accounts, people sending money off discounts, runs into hundreds of

millions, if not billions. The truth is we all lose. I am feeling

vulnerable. My feeling is that banks are not putting enough training into

their staff to insist that they do stringent checks. You are quite

right. Preventing fraud is about, you know, getting these good

practices into habitual behaviour. That is for the bank, the tellers,

the people in the call centres, and customers. It is education. With

some kind of financial scam committed every 15 seconds, it seems

there is still a long way to go. Nobody wants to go back to the old

days of putting your money in a shoe box and sticking it under the bed.

But the banks are going to have to work very hard to convince me that

they are keeping our money as safe as it should be. With all of the

high-tech security and technology around these days, I still find it

unbelievable that strangers could just walk in off the street, go into

the bank and effectively just help themselves.

It is an extraordinary story. Terrible. Barclay's Bank told us

that while the correct decision was made to return the couple's money,

they accept they could have handled the case better. They want to

apologise to them and they reassured that they will learn from what

happened. We asked the British bankers

Association to come in and give us some reassurance on all of this, but

unfortunately they said they didn't have anybody available this morning.

It stressed that tackling fraud is a top priority. The banks stop ?7 in

?10 of all attempts last year. -- stopped. They spent a lot of money

on sophisticated equipment. They work closely with government and

fraud agencies to try to stop all courts of fraud. -- sorts of fraud.

The fact representative couldn't come in today tells me something.

But I'm joined by barrister Stephen Mason who has written books on bank

security. And also represented clients in cases against the banks.

Do you think we, collectively, will ever feel safe with banks?

It is debatable. Banks have to understand they are in the business

of risk and controlling it. When I was on -- in bomb disposal, that is

what we did. Is it bigger than what is being reported? It is. As a

result of getting some figures from the commissioner at the Metropolitan

Police in the City of London, I reckon there is at least 1.9 billion

people affected who are not in the official figures. I have to laugh a

bit when I hear statement saying we have the best technology possibly in

the world. -- statements. Why are they not putting it in? In the end,

it cost the bank money because I got the money back. Why don't they put

the money into the technology? I can't answer that. With your

particular example, what I find extraordinary is that you cannot

rely on the document itself. It could be fraud, as we have seen. You

should be double-checking where the document comes from. If you have a

passport, there is no reason why the banks couldn't double-check with the

passport office to check if it is legitimate. Elementary. Very pleased

to have come in today. I think we might return to the subject. Thank

you. You are welcome. If you have anything to say about banks, scams,

or anything else, let us know about it. We will be catching up with your

e-mails in a moment. First, all week we are revealing the consumer habits

of some quite familiar faces. I can vouch for the fact that our

first familiar face, belonging to Jeremy Vine, that he is a nice man

but for somebody who comes across so amenable he is also extremely good

at complaining. Let's go to the newsroom... He is the voice of Radio

2's lunchtime radio news show. No election programme would be the same

without him. In Wales, for example, when Labour are dominant... And he

is the new face of BBC One's Crimewatch. Good evening and welcome

to the programme... But how good is Jeremy at fighting his own corner as

a consumer? You have this reputation as a tough interviewer. You take on

heads of corporation. You take on MPs. You take on all sorts of

people. What kind of things do you complain about? I think you should

always complain with humour. You've got to make them enjoy the

complaint. They need to put the complaint on their office wall. You

need to complain with humour, always. I'm interested in the way

you use your Twitter. You have over half a million followers. Do you see

the Internet as a powerful tool in the hands of consumers? It is

incredibly powerful. Twitter is like a notice board. You put up your

tweet on the notice board, other people see it. If they decide to

spread it you can find that a tweet from somebody who is pretty obscure

suddenly goes viral, or gets spread everywhere. The customer now has the

way back to the company. I was on a train once, I could see the tea

trolley and it wasn't moving. I tweeted, looks like insert name of

company, is thinking of installing their trolley in a museum. Because

this thing isn't moving. Then a moment later I saw these two has

pushed its trolley. It turned, lumbered towards me, and this man in

a uniform said" was it you who tweeted, then? " And I just thought,

wow, the power consumers have. Clearly you care a lot about

consumer rights. What are your top tips? I have turned the whole thing

around. I look for shops where there is bad service and I try to give

them good customer presence. By doing what? I am friendly, cheerful,

I say, I hope you're having a good day, look as if you are busy, I hope

I haven't got in the way. I'm not being sarcastic. I just think, that

spread some love. Does it pay off, do you get better service? Mostly

not. But once in a while... CHUCKLES

Thank you. Pleasure. He is a nice man. But it is the smile on the face

of a tiger when he says that. As you can imagine, you have been

sending in loads of your comments while we have been on the air,

particularly about our banking story.

I wonder why that is. Including comments from a lot of

banking staff. We will pick up on those later in the week. First, a

tweet from Linda Webb who says I think the banks should have a

photograph of you on your system so they could check. How easy would

that be? Simple.

Barbara Richards asks where is the best place to put your money without

good interest rate and -- with a good interest rate and where it is

safe. The interest on ordinary account is about 1%. 2% if you lock

it away for four years. Nothing to write home about. If you put some

money into a current account some current accounts pay up to 5%, but

only for a year, otherwise other accounts pay up to 1.5% for certain

amounts. But do look out for FSC S, it protects up to ?75,000, but that

could be with some banks who are in the same group so it is important to

check. -- FSCS. Jeff Randall fumbled and asks why TV and Internet

companies charge so much for installation when it is just a

matter of plugging in a device. -- Jeff from Northumberland. I agree.

My advice is to use your power as a consumer to haggle with them and

say, well, another provider when charge me. All it is is flicking a

switch, and if they don't budge, go to somebody else who will. Shop

around. Absolutely. This is from Robert in King's Lynn, he says you

mentioned in a programme about cold callers ringing you are, what about

cold callers knocking on the door? Another big problem. Good news is

you have better rights than he used. If they are trying to persuade you

to sign up for a legitimate service, or something to buy, and it costs

more than ?42, that is the magic figure, you 14 days -- you have 14

days to cancel. But there are some rogues. In some areas with

neighbourhood watch you can get a note cold calling zone. But if you

get somebody trying to sell you something and they don't offer

cancellation right, you can report them. Or slam the door in their

face! LAUGHTER

That is where we must leave it. It has flown by. We loved having your

company and questions. We would do it all over again.

And we will do it tomorrow with Ross Altman who will blow the whistle on

what she really thinks about how the government has handled changes to

women's pensions. -- Ros Altman. See you at 9:15am sharp.

Goodbye.