How to Prevent Asset Recovery Companies from Scamming You
Financial fraud victims are approached by phony asset recovery firms that promise to retrieve lost money in exchange for an upfront payment. It sounds fantastic, but there’s a catch: they don’t really help and then take the money and leave.
Numerous con artists are out there looking to steal your hard-earned cash. It might be difficult to accept being duped by some of these dishonest money-making techniques. Being cheated again, particularly by someone who claims to be able to retrieve your assets, is much worse. Find out more about how these individuals operate and what to watch out for to prevent falling for these skilled con artists.
The Operation of Asset Recovery Scams
The majority of fraudsters create a list of victims and sell that information to other con artists, such as asset recovery scammers. By gathering victim names and contact details from court documents, for instance, scammers might identify possible victims.
These individuals cold phone former victims who have lost thousands of dollars and assert that their knowledge may help them recoup their losses. Typically, victims are in a frantic attempt to recover their losses. They frequently voluntarily pay the upfront cost, which can range from several hundred to thousands of dollars, further depleting their finances. As a result, the asset recovery fraudsters are never successful in recovering any assets. The victims become frustrated or are unable to follow up at all when they attempt to
The asset recovery business will provide services in a less ostentatious version of the plan. However, the user can typically execute these tasks for free. Assume, for instance, that in the initial scam, a credit card was used fraudulently to pay for something. The asset recovery firm will pay hundreds of dollars for its time, difficulty, and alleged legal knowledge to dispute the charge with the credit card company on behalf of their customer. Actually, the cardholder doesn’t have to pay to dispute a charge; all they need to do is call the card issuer, which has entire departments dedicated to handling such matters.
An Illustration of an Asset Recovery Fraud
After learning that Consumer Collection Advocates was making misleading claims that it could collect money for clients who had fallen victim to scams, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stopped the organization from offering any recovery services in 2015. The company had been collecting fees from clients, many of whom were elderly, who had already suffered losses due to investment schemes involving precious metals and timeshare resale.
employs forceful, quick-reaction strategies
When making a financial decision, you have the right as a consumer to take your time and consult an advisor. If the business cannot afford to provide you that time, you should be concerned.
Statements claiming to possess inside knowledge
A company that says it has official ties or insider knowledge that will help you recoup your stolen assets should be avoided. Any company that claims to have unique access or relationships is most likely lying, as it costs nothing to submit a complaint with a government agency.