Recognising investment and employment fraud

Investment and employment fraud reported to the police follows a consistent pattern, and recognising it is usually enough to avoid it.

Investment offers

• Returns described as guaranteed, fixed, or risk-free. Genuine investments carry risk, and say so.
• Pressure to decide quickly, often with a closing date that keeps moving.
• Payment to a personal account rather than a corporate one.
• Rewards for recruiting others — the defining feature of a scheme that pays early participants from the deposits of later ones.
• No verifiable registration with the relevant regulator.

Employment offers

The central warning sign is a requirement to pay before you earn — for training, for processing, for a uniform, for a medical, for a guarantee. Legitimate employers do not charge candidates to be employed.

Also treat as suspect: an offer made without any interview, correspondence from a free email address in a company's name, and a demand for identity documents or bank details before any contract exists.

Before you commit

Verify the organisation independently — through the regulator's register, or by contacting the company through details you found yourself rather than those supplied to you. Take the time the offer is trying to deny you.

If you have paid

Contact your bank immediately, preserve all correspondence and payment references, and report at your nearest division or to the appropriate specialist unit.