I don’t know how the majority of people in the States feel about their personal finances but here in the UK many people are feeling the pinch.
Over the last couple of years interest rates have risen several times in order to curb spending, as a means of keeping the inflation rate under control.
For many homeowners this has spelled increasing pressure as they had already overburdened themselves with debt.
For many, taking out a 2nd mortgage is the only answer to keeping their heads above water.
However, there are many 2nd mortgage scams doing the rounds at the moment, coming via email.
The aim of such scams is to phish personal information from the recipient.
The scam begins with the potential victim receiving a spam email that advertises a 2nd mortgage offer is that is extremely enticing.
If it comes when someone is in dire financial straits they may well reply without stopping to think.
Embeded within the email will be a link to a website from where the victim can apply for the ‘mortgage’.
Of course, with such financial deals it is quite normal to be asked for detailed personal and financial information so the person being scammed may not smell a rat, even at this point.
This personal and financial data is of great value to the scammer.
Even if they don’t use it themselves, for committing fraud or identity theft, they can still make a fair amount of money from selling the information to other scammers who would do exactly that.
In most instances the victim would never hear from the scammer again.
They would only discover what had happened when bank or credit card statements arrived with unusual entries on them.
As ever, if a deal seems too good to be true then put in some research at the very least.
Never give out personal information online, especially after clicking hyperlinks in emails.
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