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Episode details

Radio 4,01 Jun 2013,30 mins

Mortgage refusal mix-up, fake financial advisors, discount vouchers

Money Box

Available for over a year

Meet Ms K Richardson, Ms K Richardson, and Ms K Richardson. As triplets they share the same date of birth, the same name, and, until recently, they all shared the same address. Kelly, the youngest by a few minutes, saved up carefully with her fiancé to buy a home. With few debts and all payments up to date she expected to get a mortgage easily. But when she sent for her credit record, she got a shock. Found out what happened next on the programme and hear advice about managing your credit file from Neil Munroe of the credit rating agency Equifax. Crooks trying to sell people shares are now cloning the identity of registered financial advisers to give themselves respectability. One top adviser tells us he had to spend thousands of pounds changing his firm's name and website after it was copied flawlessly by crooks who even answered the phone in his name! And a victim of the scam tells us how he was reeled in with small investments. Every check he made seemed to show the advisor was legitimate. But it was a clone and eventually took £120,000 off him. We hear how investors can protect themselves from the fake financial advisors. Legitimate websites of major and well-known online retailers are being used to lure people into joining a discount club which can cost them hundreds of pounds. It is all entirely above board but some customers say they are not aware they are being signed up.

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