Episode 6 Rip Off Britain

We asked YOU to tell us who has left you feeling ripped off

and you contacted us in your thousands by post,

e-mail, even stopping us on the streets.

The message could not be clearer.

They're in it for what they can get, not to provide a service.

I didn't sleep. It upset me so much that I didn't sleep.

You've told us with money tighter than ever,

you need to be sure every pound you spend is worth it.

How do I get me money back? I just think I'm entitled to it.

So whether it's a deliberate rip-off,

a simple mistake or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.

Keep asking the questions, keep... Go to the top if you have to.

We do get results, I mean, that's the interesting thing.

Your stories. Your money.

This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello and a very warm welcome to Rip-Off Britain,

the series that battles on your behalf

to find out exactly why, after handing over your cash,

you may end up with nothing like you expected.

Or indeed, as with some of the people we'll be hearing from today,

you may end up with a big fat zero, nothing at all.

That's because when you sign up to a deal that doesn't materialise,

it's very often because you've been persuaded to do so

by either very convincing advertisements

or smooth-talking salesmen.

Now, of course, companies depend on both of those things

to boost their profits,

but in the situations you've been telling us about,

too often, those profits can mean your loss.

It's not always easy to tell whether something's a bargain or bogus,

which is why among our cases today

are people who've lost hundreds, even thousands, of pounds

because of promises that haven't come true.

But the good news is, we've got some excellent advice

to stop the same thing happening to you.

On today's programme...

new ways scamsters can con you out of your cash

and one of them has cost this family hundreds of pounds.

I'm not only having to cover the cost for the loan

but I'm also having to cover the cost that we have lost

through applying for this loan.

The promises of guaranteed cash prizes

dropping through your letter box - but do they ever pay out?

This is a cheque for £20,500

and if it's lies or deceit, it's fraud.

And our experts pop up in one of Britain's biggest shopping centres

to solve more of your problems face-to-face.

Anyone who cold-calls has to make sure they don't call people

who are on this list, so that is definitely the thing to do.

Now if you're someone who thinks

that you're just too savvy to be taken in by a scam,

well, don't be so sure.

Because here's one that's not only fiendishly clever

but is very much on the rise.

In fact, in the first four months of this year,

thieves managed to snaffle the same amount of money from it

as they did in the whole of 2011 -

a cool £750,000,

three quarters of a million quid.

So pay attention to how they do it

because remember, the next person they target could very well be you.

Now it's important to try and stay ahead

of crooks and conmen who employ cunning tactics

to come up with ways to get their hands on your cash.

Some scams may start with a simple phone call,

as cake-maker Fiona Keen discovered back in January.

'I was phoned on the Sunday night about 9pm'

by someone called Alex from a 24-hour fraud team

who seemed to know all my details - my name, my phone number, my address,

and he said I'd been a victim of a Section 24 fraud,

my Barclaycard had been, um, cloned and all my cards had been cloned.

Claiming to be from Barclaycard, the man calling himself Alex

told Fiona that her details were already being used

to buy things like petrol and mobile phone credit

and to prove that it wasn't her racking up the cash,

he needed to send a courier round to collect her cards.

I immediately said, "I'm not handing my cards over to you,"

and he said no, no, no it was a new system,

that if they put the cards through a machine and it could be proved

that I hadn't used the cards in the places where there'd been activity,

then I would definitely get the money back.

The caller warned that if Fiona didn't cooperate,

it was unlikely that she'd ever get the money back.

But she refused to hand over her cards.

And that is when things got really sneaky.

When I was becoming suspicious, Alex asked me

to phone the customer care number on the back of my Barclaycard

to verify that it was a genuine fraud.

I put the phone down to Alex

and picked up the phone and I didn't listen for a dial tone

and then I phoned the customer care line on the back of Barclaycard

and I got through to a person and, you know, explained what happened.

He said, "I'm just going to put you through to the fraud team,"

and immediately I got through to this Alex.

Although the whole situation felt quite strange,

I was quite relieved to be put through to Barclaycard

from the number I'd called on the back of the card.

But Fiona wasn't speaking to Barclaycard at all.

Unbeknown to her, when she'd hung up the phone to this so-called Alex,

he hadn't disconnected his end of the call, and was still on the line.

So Fiona wasn't talking to a genuine fraud department.

In fact, there's no such thing as Section 24 fraud.

And whoever he really was -

Alex certainly didn't work for Barclaycard.

But his phone trick had won Fiona over

and he kept her on the line until the courier arrived.

He asked me to wrap the cards in tissue paper

and to put it in an envelope

and to write "NW1" and then a code number.

30 minutes into the call, a man arrived,

ready to collect all six of Fiona's bank cards.

I have to say, it did look a little bit shifty.

When I was handing over the cards, I was shaking

because I was giving away my personal things

and it's just not something that I would normally do.

The courier left, supposedly taking the cards across London

to where they could be checked and a block put on them.

And Alex said he needed Fiona to stay on the line until they arrived.

I kept asking, "Can I put the phone down now?" And he said, "No, no, no."

He said to me, "He's just going through security now,"

to make it sound fairly professional, that it was a police organisation.

He eventually got through

and that's when he asked me to read out the PIN numbers

so he could block them.

Now eating out of the fraudsters' hands,

Fiona proceeded to give them the PIN codes for five of her cards

and she was relieved when Alex said

they could prove that she hadn't used them

and she'd be getting all her money back - if she unplugged her phone.

He said to me, "We need your line in order to wire the money back to you,"

and that he would tell me when to put the line back.

By this time, it was almost 11pm

and after being on the phone for two hours to Alex,

who Fiona still believed was from Barclaycard's fraud team,

she followed his instructions and disconnected her landline.

I felt quite suspicious. I've never been asked to undo my phone line

and I do realise now it was so people couldn't contact me.

So as arranged, the fraudster rang Fiona again the next day

on her mobile, to update her

on the progress supposedly being made with her case.

He had been keeping in contact with me

on my mobile phone at various times of day,

just to tell me how things were going and he said that they had the CCTV,

they had the pictures of the people who had been frauding my cards.

He was being very chatting and charming,

and even though I had doubts at the back of my mind,

I just kept saying to myself,

"Oh, you're being silly, because they're sorting it out for you."

And he did say to me, "You won't need to contact your bank,

"I'm dealing with that for you as well."

The reassuring calls to Fiona's mobile continued.

But when they stopped, she reconnected her landline

and that is when she was horrified to realise she'd been scammed.

I found all the messages on the phone

that people had been trying to contact me, and the banks, M&S,

to tell me... I actually felt sick.

To have your cards actually taken from your own home is unbelievable

and it's really quite shocking how smooth that happened.

Fiona discovered that the fraudsters

had quickly made full use of her cards.

I can see that they were spending as soon as Sunday,

so they got straight onto it

and for the next two days, they were spending in large amounts.

400, 500, and then into the thousands.

The total amount they've spent on this particular card is £7,000.

In fact, they maxed out my card.

In total, the fraudsters spent £15,000.

Luckily, Barclaycard provide customers with a fraud guarantee

so they won't lose out,

and as Fiona could prove that she'd been a victim of fraud,

she got her money back within a week.

Barclaycard told us that they're aware of this scam,

but would never, ever call asking for personal details

or requiring cards to be returned

and anyone who receives a request like that should end the call.

Meanwhile, although Fiona has her money back,

she's now on a security register

and will have to go through enhanced checks

when trying to get credit in the future.

I couldn't believe that it happened to me

because I'm not the sort of person to give my cards away.

The whole of this experience has really shaken me up,

but I'm very relieved to have all my money back.

It is an extremely sophisticated scam.

Well, fabulous news, of course, that Fiona has got her money back.

But someone somewhere has still done very well out of that scam.

So Neil Aitken from the Payments Council is here

with advice on how to make sure, in similar situations,

that you can protect yourself and, of course, your money.

You might find that you're cold-called at home

by someone posing either as someone from your bank or from the police.

They might have a bit of personal information about you.

They might know who you bank with.

but they will reveal themselves to be fraudsters

by the extra information they ask for,

that your bank or the police would never request from you.

The thing to really watch out for

is if they try and persuade you

to enter your PIN.

That could be reading it out over the phone

or entering it into the telephone keypad.

Your PIN is completely personal to you.

No-one from your bank will ever request it.

The scam develops and they tell you

they're going to send round a courier to pick up your cards.

Again, this should set alarm bells ringing immediately.

Your bank or the police

will never, ever send someone round

to pick up your card.

If this does happen, it means you know you are talking to a fraudster.

They will try and win your trust

by saying, "Call us back on the number on the back of your card."

What they will actually do is keep the phone line open at their end.

They might even play the noise of a dial tone down the phone

to persuade you that when you call back,

you're speaking to the real deal.

Take a minute. You don't need to call back immediately.

If you've got a mobile phone, call back on that,

on the advertised number you have

and then you can be sure you're getting through to the right people.

If you think you've been a victim of this fraud,

contact the police straightaway,

then speak to your bank immediately.

Report your cards lost and stolen.

No-one who's an innocent victim of fraud

will ever lose out financially.

Now, unfortunately, there's always someone out there

who is prepared to do absolutely anything

to part you from your hard-earned cash

and they're always on the lookout

for new ways in which they can do it.

So you can bet that whenever some bright spark comes up with an idea

that's supposed to make our lives easier,

someone else is immediately going to find a way

to turn that to their advantage.

And judging from the e-mails and the letters you've sent us this year,

that is exactly what seems to be happening with Ukash vouchers -

a very simple but increasingly popular way to make payments.

But the scamsters are using them to rip you off

and here is how they're doing it.

For Louise Beard and her soldier husband Lee, every penny counts.

One step, two steps tickles everywhere!

Lee is often posted abroad, and while he's away,

running the family finances falls on Louise's shoulders.

Recently, that meant sorting out the final repayments on their car.

They'd bought it on a deal

where the biggest monthly payment was saved until last...

One, two, three, up!

..so a bill for almost £6,000 was looming.

We'd bought a car on finance in 2009

and it's due to finish

while my husband's away in Afghan,

so I was looking online to see if I could get a loan that way.

After she entered her details on a website,

Louise was delighted to get a call offering her a £15,000 loan.

Hoping that this was the answer to her financial worries,

she checked out the credentials of the company,

who called themselves Citi Financial.

I checked the Financial Services Authority number

and the licence number, and it all looked legit

so I went ahead with the £15,000 loan.

As well as that research,

she was sent an official-looking e-mail confirming her application.

So Louise was happy that this company was genuine.

So when this so-called "Citi Financial" got back in touch

asking for a £215 fee to process her application,

she wasn't worried.

I just had to pay a small processing fee by Ukash voucher

and they also gave me the address of a local shop

to go and collect the voucher from, which I was happy to do

because I knew that other loan companies ask for a processing fee.

Ukash vouchers are pre-paid shopping vouchers

that you can purchase at shops across the country.

You buy a voucher for the amount that you want,

then use the unique number printed on it to spend the money.

It's a quick and easy process, very similar to using cash

because once you've handed over the number, that's the money spent

and there's no way of getting it back.

I went into the local shop.

I purchased the voucher which had the voucher number on the receipt,

I then come out the shop, phoned up the company,

gave them the voucher number and the expiry date.

Little did Louise know that the company was not

who they said they were. But now they had her hooked...

Would you like some fish food?

..and it was time to reel her in.

An hour later, they called Louise again - suddenly changing the deal.

They said my earnings weren't high enough,

so I would need to purchase another Ukash voucher

to prove that I could pay the monthly instalments

and I couldn't afford to lose the money that I'd already put down,

so I went and got the next voucher.

Determined to get the loan sorted,

Louise dashed to the shop to buy a second voucher -

this time for £300, enough to cover the extra fee of £299.

She then called the company, gave them the voucher number...

But shortly afterwards, they rang her back.

'I was then told they couldn't use the voucher

'because it had to be for £299 only'

and I would need to go and purchase one for 299

but I could still use the £300 one

to pay my bills, my gas, my electric,

so I thought, "Well, that's OK," cos I needed to pay them.

So Louise went out and bought a third voucher,

for the exact amount of £299.

By now, she'd handed over more than £800.

And alarm bells started ringing

when someone from the company rang her back yet again

asking for more.

He said to me that the money was all ready to go into my account

but I would need to pay a soft electronic transfer

which I would get back as soon as I'd done it

but I would need to pay another lot of money.

I then realised something wasn't right

and I told him, I said to him,

"Let's just forget about the application and refund my money."

He then told me he couldn't do that, and hung up the phone.

I was gutted, I didn't know how to tell my husband...

It was awful, I was devastated with it.

And that devastation only got worse.

Because although the company had led Louise to believe

that they would not be cashing in the second voucher for £300,

they already had.

They ended up cashing every voucher,

which worked out about £815 in total.

'I don't even earn that in a month.'

'When she told me, I was obviously really gutted.

'I thought, like, it's quite a lot of money to just lose in one go.'

You can only check everything you know about

and obviously, these guys are working around that

and doing a really good job at what they do,

which is to con money out of normal people.

Desperate to get their money back,

Louise has tried calling the company on the number that they gave her.

There's no reply.

It's just ringing like it always does.

There is a genuine company with a similar name

to the one that the scamsters used.

Based in the City of London,

it's called CitiFinancial Europe plc, part of the Citibank Group.

They no longer even offer loans

and now have a warning on their website about companies

using names or reference numbers that are similar to theirs

to scam you out of money.

They advise anyone offered a loan in this way to contact the police.

And whoever the scamsters really were, they were able to

exploit the simplicity of Ukash vouchers to trick Louise

out of over £800 - money she could not afford to lose.

I'm angry with it because I was hoping to have it a bit easier

when he's in Afghan, but it hasn't,

it's put a lot more pressure on me

because I'm not only having to cover the cost for the loan,

but I'm also having to cover the cost that we have lost

through applying for this loan.

Well, later in the programme we're going to be hearing more about

situations where Ukash payments have been targeted by scamsters.

And we'll also going to be talking to the company behind the scheme

to see what they've done to make it safe.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, the mail shots that promise

a life-changing sum of money, so what's the catch?

But how likely is it that your money will ever arrive?

My advice to anybody that gets it is don't even look at it,

just stick it in the bin.

Rip-Off Britain is on the road again.

For one weekend only, we've set up our very own pop-up shop.

We're hoping we can solve as many of your problems as possible,

face-to-face.

And we've a team of experts on hand to answer questions

and offer detailed help and advice.

The rising cost of car insurance, pensions and petrol prices -

just some of the issues you've been keen to got off your chests

in our special Gripe Box.

But there's one particular gripe

that quite a few of you wanted to share.

The thing that really annoys me is cold calling on the telephones.

As far as I'm concerned I'm supposed to be ex-directory

and nobody's supposed to have my number.

They'll ring until they get an answer,

It's just annoying, very annoying.

Absolutely fed up with them.

Even up to nine o'clock at night.

Everybody trying to sell you something one way or another.

It sounds as though those unwanted sales calls

are a real bugbear for many of you.

So our colleagues from BBC Skillswise have put together

some tips on how best to deal with them.

We can save you over £10 a month.

With an actress playing the part of a salesperson,

they've come up with a cold-call challenge

to put consumers - including us - to the test.

What are you calling yourselves again?

Hello?

-Hello, is that Mrs Jones?

-Yes.

How are you today, Mrs Jones? I hope you've been making

the most of this lovely weather we've been having.

You're going to sell me something, aren't you?

Well, I have got a fantastic offer to make you, Mrs Jones.

No, no don't. Let me stop you right there. Thank you so much.

I'm really not interested, but thank you so much for your call. Bye!

And that's how I do it. Just get rid of them!

Fantastic.

But what - if anything -

can you do to stop receiving cold-calls in the first place?

Clifford March popped in to find out.

-Cold calls.

-Yeah.

We went ex-directory to stop this

but we've been getting hundreds upon hundreds of cold calls.

There is quite an easy solution.

There's the Telephone Preference Service

which is free to register for.

You literally give them your telephone number

and you fill it in online or you can give them a call and speak to them.

It takes two to three minutes to do

and then that will stop all nuisance calls.

Anyone who cold calls has to make sure that they don't call

people on this list so that's what to do

and that should solve your problem for you.

Well, that's absolutely fantastic, Dominic, thank you very much indeed.

The Telephone Preference Service isn't foolproof,

but it's the essential starting point for stopping unwanted calls.

Hopefully now it'll stop and, um, I can't believe how easy it was.

We all make mistakes and big companies are no exception.

It's what they do or don't do to put those mistakes right

that can leave you feeling ripped-off,

so you need to know what your rights are and where to go

if you don't feel you've been treated fairly.

We've put together a free booklet of practical tips and advice.

You can download it from our website...

Or to receive a copy in the post,

send an A5 stamped and self-addressed envelope

to the address that we'll give you at the end of the programme.

Now if you're really being honest,

which one of us hasn't at some stage dreamt of what we'd do

if we won that small fortune in cash?

So imagine how you'd feel if you suddenly received

a letter in the post saying that you'd won thousands of pounds.

Not that you stood a chance of winning it, but that already,

the money was definitely yours.

Now you'd probably think it was all too good to be true, but then again,

when it's all there, written in black and white, you might also

hope for the best and just wait for your windfall to arrive.

Alan Dowling received a letter just like that.

So was Lady Luck truly on his side?

And if not, what was really going on?

On average, every household receives 377 pieces of junk mail

through its letterbox each year.

And it can be very hard to decide what is junk

and what is a genuine offer or promise.

A dilemma faced by Alan Downing last year

when he started getting letters

saying that he'd won huge cash prizes.

"With the confirmation of the amount,

"we hereby confirm that the amount of this cheque is £15,500."

We go £15,500,

£15,500,

£15,500,

£15,500,

and £20,500!

If all this did come to me

I would be one of the richest men in Manchester.

The letters came from a mail order company called Star Shopping,

which has a PO Box address in Dublin.

They also sent Alan their catalogue of products.

On reading it, the products in it didn't really interest me

in the first place.

But then I started thinking,

well, they've told me I've won 20,500 here.

More than that, they guaranteed it! So with such a clear promise,

well, 72-year-old Alan just couldn't resist replying.

When I saw the documents, I thought well, we can all do

with 20-and-a-half grand for doing nothing.

I was quite wary that it was going to be a scam

but I thought I'll continue it because it'll only cost me a stamp,

and, well, you never know -

somebody might be silly enough at the other end

to actually make a cheque out for me.

Star Shopping quickly wrote back.

Not with a cheque,

but with an assurance that if he ordered

something from the catalogue, the money would be sent "right away".

The catalogue said I didn't have to buy anything

but if I did, it would speed it up.

So Alan placed an order.

I got the goods.

Got this plastic squeegee thing on a piece of plastic, but no cheque.

And funnily enough, there still hasn't been...

although over the next six months,

Alan received a further 25 letters insisting that the money

was still waiting for him at Star Shopping's headquarters.

And all he had to do to get it was order more.

£20,500 this one!

"Mr Downing, this is the best day of your life."

But I thought that was my wedding day!

"You are the one and only lucky, winning beneficiary

"of the big bank cheque for £20,500."

They don't give up with this!

But I'm afraid Alan has given up on ever receiving his prize.

Still at least he didn't waste too much money.

Unlike John Cooper from Bournemouth.

He received the same letters from Star Shopping

and indeed from other mail order companies,

some of which appear to be connected.

He was also told that as soon as he ordered from the catalogues,

his five figure prize would be on its way.

I've probably placed about 16 to 18 orders with Star

and, with the other mail order firms, probably about another ten.

Generally speaking I suppose the orders would come

to about £15 to £20 each time.

They're mainly small domestic items -

bottles of fluid for cleaning

plastic windows and chairs,

some crystals for putting down drains to unblock them.

Nothing very exciting.

When John contacted Star Shopping to see where his winner's cheque was,

three of the company directors assured him in writing

that it would be sent to him shortly.

All three of them had signed a document confirming

that I had won that money

so I was just waiting for the cheque to come through the post,

but of course I'm still waiting.

Now believing his winnings were on their way,

John spent £350 on Star Shopping products alone.

He also spent almost £200 on goods from the other catalogues,

because they too promised that he'd won big cash prizes.

There's probably about

300 different pamphlets, envelopes and letters all of which are

clearly pointing out that a massive prize has been won by myself.

This is a cheque for £20,500, it is not a discount voucher,

but a real first prize bank cheque.

That's just one indication.

I was the only person getting the prize.

I mean, I wouldn't have expected that to be true,

but when somebody makes a statement like that in business,

under contract, and firms make that contract, they must stand by it.

And if it's lies or deceit, it's fraud.

Now you may also have received catalogues like these.

Many of them have addresses in either the Netherlands or Belgium.

And several of them have links to a Belgian mail order company

called D Duchesne SA - a business that the Office of Fair Trading

has taken action against in the past,

all as part of an ongoing battle about these kinds of prize draws.

But I'm afraid that hasn't stopped the same sort of misleading letters

being sent to countless households across the UK.

We contacted all the companies who'd written to John to ask why

neither he nor anyone else we've heard from

has ever received the prize they were supposedly guaranteed.

Not one of them has replied.

John still can't believe they're able to make such big claims

without delivering on their promises.

Perhaps a person listening to this might say, well,

he was naive. I would never fall for that.

But my view is that firms should not be able

to make these sort of offers. They should be heavily penalised.

They made these false promises and kept on repeating the promises

when they were complete lies.

And Alan has some words of wisdom

for anyone who receives a letter like this

suggesting they've won a cash prize.

My advice to anybody that gets it is

don't even look at it, just stick it in the bin or return to sender

because you're not going to get it.

If you've ever been tempted by a deal

or a promise that's not what it seems,

or is just too good to be true,

well, here's how to resist it.

The first thing is that if someone calls at your house

and tries to sell you something, don't feel under pressure.

It's quite likely

the sales man or woman will be under pressure themselves

because they will have sales targets to meet.

But that's their problem and not yours so take your time and only buy

something if you want to buy it and you want to buy it there and then.

If not, just say no.

If you buy something at home or at your office,

so basically away from the normal place where the company

does its business, you have some fairly good rights.

You have the right to cancel within seven days,

and that seven days starts from when you were given the information about

your cancellation rights which may not be when you actually sign up.

If you are getting plagued by lots of doorstep sellers,

you might want to consider setting up a no cold-calling zone.

It is something your local trading standards

and the police can organise for you.

But it's not an automatic right.

Normally there has to be a certain number of older or vulnerable people

living in your area.

If you're fed up with junk mail coming through your letter box,

then I suggest you sign up with a mailing preference scheme.

That means that companies you don't have any business with

won't be able to send you junk mail.

You will still get some marketing information from companies

like your bank or energy supplier.

Signing up for the mailing preference scheme

won't necessarily mean that you stop getting those dodgy letters

saying you have won a lottery you've never entered,

or you've won a prize competition. Generally these offers are dodgy

so don't even open the envelope - shred it or get rid of it.

If you reply to one of these companies,

you could find your name's put on what's called a suckers list,

meaning your details will be traded with other would-be fraudsters.

Now earlier in the programme,

we heard how an increasingly popular form of payment

can be exploited by companies determined to rip you off.

Ukash vouchers, as they're called, are a perfectly legitimate

and apparently easy way of paying for things.

But in some parts of the country, Trading Standards officers

are warning of scams which mean you could end up out of pocket.

So could it be that Ukash vouchers are just too simple to use?

In May, Karen McCracken from Nottinghamshire was thrilled

when she received a call from a withheld number,

claiming she'd won some money.

They phoned up about half-past ten in the morning,

saying that I'd won this £10,000, and it was from Royal Mail.

It was quite exciting to be fair, I must admit.

But to claim it, they asked her for a £50 admin fee

which she'd have to pay using a Ukash voucher.

Well, I said I would have to speak to my husband about it

and he turned round and said,

"You don't need your husband's permission for this."

I said, "Well, I think I do,

"cos I haven't got that kind of money to give you anyway."

And he says, "Oh well, I'll phone you back on Monday."

He did call back on the Monday morning,

still falsely claiming to be from the Royal Mail.

But when Karen declined the offer, he became aggressive,

insisting they must have that admin fee

whether she wanted her prize or not!

They just kept saying that I would need a solicitor

and he went, "I'm going to send the police round to your door

"to get this money because you're breaking the law not giving me it."

And it got me scared to be honest. When I come off the phone, I cried.

Karen didn't fall for what the man was saying,

but only because the previous year,

she'd been targeted in a similar way.

She'd again been told that to claim a £10,000 cash prize,

she'd have to pay an admin fee. And that time, she'd done it.

They told me I needed a Ukash voucher

and even told me where the shop was, what street it was on and stuff

and I never heard of them before.

The woman on the phone said that she'd call back once Karen had

bought the Ukash voucher, to get the unique code number printed on it.

So I went and got the £50 UK voucher

and then they said that that would be it, I would get the cheque.

Karen had just unwittingly handed over £50 she'd never see again.

The woman who'd called her

was using the simplicity of Ukash vouchers to scam her.

But Karen only realised that when her winnings failed to arrive.

The cheque never come after Christmas cos we thought,

Christmas time it'd be lovely, be able to get the kids something nice.

But it never come.

Ukash is a convenient way of paying online at websites

if you don't have a bank account, or debit or credit cards.

But once you've handed over the serial number,

the payment is completely untraceable.

It's as if you'd used cash and unlike using a credit or debit card,

you have absolutely no protection.

As Karen's learned the hard way.

And then I went well we've lost £50,

and it was my last £50 out the bank to be fair,

because we didn't get paid till the week after.

After the second incident,

she reported the calls to the police

and to Nottinghamshire Trading Standards who issued a warning

about the scam.

Well, these kind of cold-callers are particularly difficult

because of the aggression that's used.

They're possibly targeting people who haven't got the facility

to use credit cards and debit cards so readily.

Ukash vouchers are a brilliant idea, they work in a lot of circumstances.

But you do need to remember that,

when you give that number over, it's effectively handing the cash over.

Across the UK, whether it's on the phone, or online,

Ukash vouchers are being exploited by crooks in all sorts of ways.

In London, conmen have claimed to be police needing a fee paid

with Ukash to remove illegal content from PCs.

In Dunbartonshire, targets have been told they're entitled to money

from unclaimed insurance policies.

And in Gloucestershire, a recent scam was more elaborate still.

A woman reported handing £600 worth of Ukash vouchers to a man

who'd first rung to say that she was entitled

to £4,000 worth of mis-sold PPI, then turned up at her house

with very convincing forms for her to sign.

So it looks as if the only way to avoid being stung like Karen

is to make sure you only give a Ukash code

to someone you're sure is legitimate.

Otherwise whatever yarn you're being spun, chances are, it's a con.

They're actually picking on people that need the money,

and they're vulnerable anyway so they're going to take the money.

Very nasty people, very nasty people.

So, are Ukash doing enough to keep consumers safe?

Let's see what the company's chief executive, David Hunter,

has to say about the way that the system is being abused.

David, I have to confess that I had never heard of Ukash,

so shall we start by you explaining exactly what Ukash is.

So Ukash is designed to be a safe and simple way for people

to spend cash on the internet via our voucher system.

People can go, typically to their corner shop

or anywhere they might get a mobile top up,

present your cash and ask for a Ukash voucher in return

with a unique 19-digit code which represents that value.

So a bit like an electronic bank note.

You're swapping a physical bank note for an electronic bank note.

So if you take a case like the one that we're dealing with here,

what went wrong with that?

Because I'm sure you're going to tell me

your system's meant to be watertight with the code number, and so on.

Well, of course. I mean in fact, actually,

we know of not one single breach of, or somebody guessing a number

and spending it as their own, because there are

so many billions of permutations, and each number is unique.

I think what happened in this case was that she was contacted

by a cold-caller who was literally trying to scam

or extract money from her and other people,

and they'd asked her to go to a local shop to get Ukash for them

and she was asked to tell them the unique number over the telephone,

which, I must say, is just the same as

giving real cash away at your front door.

You use the word 'scam'

and obviously this is one case, but I presume there are others.

What other means do you know of

where people are getting round your system,

or rather using Ukash as a way of getting money out of people?

Scams exist and always have done, always will do,

and they'll often move to other means of executing that scam.

And I think what's happened here is that as Ukash has become more

popular and is more available and convenient for people to buy,

these criminals are exploiting the fact that people can be

convinced to use the product in a way it's not designed to be used

against our strict terms of use,

against the alerts we put on the vouchers saying please do not give

details away to anybody, only use it participating in Ukash websites.

So this has been exploited.

So David, what's the key advice that you would give people to make sure

that they don't get taken for a ride and don't have their money taken?

I think it's really important that people recognise this is like cash.

That number is the security of their value.

Please don't give that to anybody over the phone or by email

unless you want them to have the value.

It's the same as you giving them a bank note of that value.

Please only use participating websites.

You can see a full list of those sites on the Ukash.com,

and please take the warnings that you see on the voucher.

Treat like cash, don't give it to anybody else.

If you do feel that you might've been compromised

or if you've given the voucher to somebody, contact us immediately.

Because if you contact us immediately

-and the voucher's not spent, we can block it for you.

-David, thank you.

Thank you.

Here at Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate

more of your stories.

Confused over your bills?

Trying to wade through never ending small print?

We should read it but it's not in plain English. It's not...

It should be simple, you know, ABC, very basic stuff.

Unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out,

and that great deal has ended up costing you money?

You get home, you get your bill and it's like £70,

when it's meant to be £35.

And it's just basically, you get ripped off, don't you?

You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share the

mistakes that you've made with us, so that others don't do the same.

We paid them good money to act in our best interest, they didn't.

You can write to us at...

Or send us an email...

The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.

Well, fortunately most businesses, thank goodness,

don't actually set out to deliberately fleece you.

But there will always be a minority determined to do exactly that.

So while it seems, unfortunately, unlikely

that everyone that we've met today is ever going to get their money back,

we hope at least by sharing their stories with you,

we've given you an idea of some things you need to watch out for.

In particular, be extra careful before agreeing to any promise

that comes right out of the blue, whether it's in the post,

or online or on the phone.

Don't be rushed or pressurised into making a decision straight away.

Do take your time to do some research

just in case someone is trying to rip you off.

Well, with that excellent advice, that's all we've got time for today.

Thanks for joining us and please do keep sending us your stories.

We'll be back to investigate more of them soon,

but in the meantime, from all of us here, bye-bye.

ALL: Goodbye.

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