The Office of Fair Trading have released a press release warning consumers about a penalty charge reclaiming scam.  Read on to make sure you do not become a victim of these low life creeps.

Some scams are legal, others are downright disgusting and this unfortunately is one of those.

The OFT have been informed that consumers are being targetted by scam artists who pretend to be from the OFT, offering to help them reclaim the unlawfully taken charges by their banks and requesting their personal details.

This is clearly an attempt to gain information that would allow the scammers to run up huge bills or commit crimes with stolen details. 

Identity theft is a serious concern for many; we have all most likely seen the Watchdog episodes dealing with those banks who have left personal details out in black bin bags, or in my case personally (and I know I am not alone), Cahoot who sent my statements and details to another individual.

There are more than enough opportunities for these scam artists to get this information without them being freely given it.

Under no circumstances should you ever give out your personal details to cold callers or via emails.  If you have any doubt at all, ask them for their name and extension, then ring the company back on a telephone number you know of, or find in the yellow pages, and confirm the authenticity of the caller through those means.

The OFT wish to remind consumers that they would never contact an individual and ask them for their bank details and urge any consumers who have received such phone calls and given out any information to get in touch with their banks as a matter of urgency and review their statements, and credit card statements as soon as they can to confirm there have been no unauthorised transactions.

Remember at all times, genuine companies who you deal with will already have your details, you should never be asked for, or provide them again.