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Lead generation websites put expats at risk of financial scams
| Published: | 13 Mar at 6 PM |
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Financial forums nowadays are full of complaints about cold-calling, mostly blaming the purchase of consumer listings by scammers, but lead genaration websites can be as much to blame.
There’s nothing more unsettling than receiving a call from an unknown person who seems to know as much as you do about your financial affairs, investments and pensions. Worse still, should you fall for a scammer from an unregulated, unscrupulous company, you may lose your savings as a result.
Yes, company databases are sold on, cold calling does take place as a result, and seeking referrals is part of even the most reputable FA’s armoury. Less well known as a questionable source for clients are lead generation sites.
These often innocuous-seeming websites contain banner adverts and press releases and can be entire sites devoted to leaching your financial and other data such as your private phone number. The going rate for FAs who purchase such details is between £35 and £50 per lead.
The practice is common abroad as well as in the UK, as many expats now know to their cost, and these sources are normally created either by marketing companies or one-man bands. Some sites even clone information from various web pages to generate leads, then shut down and open another with a different URL.
A few use logos and names of, or similar to, those of legitimate brokers, and promote so-called cheaper services on search pages in an adjacent position to the legitimate company. Sending for or downloading a guide to a particular product such as a QROPS can result in private information being sold on.
Unregulated advisors make full use of the practice, and can pay more for the information than genuine companies as they have much lower running expenses. Checking the contact details and phone numbers of online companies and searching online for negative reports is one way to avoid being scammed.
There’s nothing more unsettling than receiving a call from an unknown person who seems to know as much as you do about your financial affairs, investments and pensions. Worse still, should you fall for a scammer from an unregulated, unscrupulous company, you may lose your savings as a result.
Yes, company databases are sold on, cold calling does take place as a result, and seeking referrals is part of even the most reputable FA’s armoury. Less well known as a questionable source for clients are lead generation sites.
These often innocuous-seeming websites contain banner adverts and press releases and can be entire sites devoted to leaching your financial and other data such as your private phone number. The going rate for FAs who purchase such details is between £35 and £50 per lead.
The practice is common abroad as well as in the UK, as many expats now know to their cost, and these sources are normally created either by marketing companies or one-man bands. Some sites even clone information from various web pages to generate leads, then shut down and open another with a different URL.
A few use logos and names of, or similar to, those of legitimate brokers, and promote so-called cheaper services on search pages in an adjacent position to the legitimate company. Sending for or downloading a guide to a particular product such as a QROPS can result in private information being sold on.
Unregulated advisors make full use of the practice, and can pay more for the information than genuine companies as they have much lower running expenses. Checking the contact details and phone numbers of online companies and searching online for negative reports is one way to avoid being scammed.
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