Expats are regarded as fair game by any number of scammers and con artists out to grab some of their cash.
If you are starting life in a new country – or thinking about the best place to move to enjoy your retirement – separating professionals who can help with financial and property decisions from the crooks can be a hard call.
These fraudsters tend to concentrate on three main targets:
- Pensions – switching UK pensions to a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) with the false promise of easy access to tax free cash
- Property – wrapping up advice with discount deals if you attend a conference or sign up quickly
- Investments – expats are viewed as likely to have more cash than other retirees because they can afford to move overseas
The danger is this advice comes from unregulated advisers who will take your money and run.
Buying property overseas is well-documented with headlines in Spain and Cyprus reporting bulldozed homes built illegally and sold with worthless title deeds.
Property conspiracies
Often lawyers, developers and sales agents conspire to defraud expats and are even known to provide forged legal documents to property buyers while taking out loans secured against the property.
Many cases are going through the courts about these property shams.
Another scam wrapper is a ‘best place to retire or invest’ report.
For example, one such report is making headlines with expat media purporting to come from the leading global authority on overseas retirement.
However, the web site making this claim does not back up the statement with why the writer is accorded this accolade.
Reading the report, many of the favoured retirement destinations are tied in to other offers to find out about or invest in property in exotic locations like Medellin, Columbia, Guatemala and Uruguay.
Unregulated investments
Unregulated investments overseas are another fraudster favourite.
They are dressed as once in a lifetime opportunities and often a chance to make an eco-friendly difference while earning high yields.
The offers come from referrals from other expats or cold call boiler rooms extolling the virtues of putting cash into carbon credits, land banking, hardwood plantations or holiday resorts.
“Resist temptation and do not succumb to greed if you are made these offers,” said a spokesman for the UK’s Action Fraud web site.
“Many of these offers are common scams and people do lose their money and only have a chance of recovering their losses in a few cases.”
