Scam Alert: The Fake Referral Scam

Scam Alert: The Fake Referral Scam

In our continuing and unfortunately never-ending mission to expose scams, here's a new one called the Fake Referral. I found out about this scam this morning and if you know about it, you can protect ;yourself. Scammers and criminals are getting more and more clever in their efforts to steal your money. Here's the latest one, the Fake Referral Scam.

Here's how the Fake Referral Scam works: Someone claiming to be a financial planner etc. calls you and says "so and so referred me to you". Sounds legit, right? Well it isn't because that is not how professionals make referrals. Don't fall for the Fake Referral Scam. Professionals, like me, make referrals differently. If a client asks me to refer them to an accountant for example, I will provide my client with several names of accountants that I trust. I will never call the accountant and give them a client's name and number.

Tips to Protect Yourself from the Fake Referral Scam:

1. Get referrals from the referring professional directly.

2. If you get a call like this, either hang up, or call the professional who supposedly has made the referral and ask if they did so.

3. Write down the callers name and phone number and consider referring the caller to the proper authorities.

If you follow these three suggestions, you can avoid this latest scam, the Fake Referral Scam.

Let me know what you think and please join our conversation. Thank you as always for your interest.

Bernie Greenberg