Are these Heir Hunters the real deal?
Are these Heir Hunters the real deal?
I received an email from the BBC programme Heir Hunters which asked me to respond in order to enable it to carry out some processes to get my claim across to me without further delay. They want my full name, date of birth and address and, if it all checks out, my claim will be on its way. I'm not sure if it is some kind of scam so please can you check it out for me? PL, Hengoed, south Wales
Heir Hunters follows probate detectives looking for the distant relatives of people who have died without making a will. I spoke to Flame Television which produces the programme for the BBC and it told me that yours isn't the first case it has encountered. The email you received looks reasonably convincing but there are grammatical errors and the email address for you to respond to does not follow the bbc.co.uk format. If you had responded, it is likely your personal details would have been used fraudulently and you may have received requests for upfront payments as part of an advance fee scam. Your instincts were right.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Answering your letters this week is Steve Playle, Trading Standards officer and team leader at Surrey Trading Standards Service.
We welcome letters but regret we cannot answer individually. Email: capital.letters@guardian.co.uk. Please include a daytime phone number.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Consumer news
Get the latest on consumer issues and trends - from property, rip-offs and pensions to fraud, political angles and rising prices
Features and analysis
Top quality stories and analysis of the burning money issues of the day - get the bigger picture
Free guides and brochures
There's a whole range of useful information to choose from including investing, retirement and family financesConsumer News
- Clock is ticking to reclaim NHS care home fees in Wales
- This weekend's Christmas food and gift offers
- Anthony Bolton is investing in China. Will you?
- Order of service
- Brown takes campaign for Tobin tax to Commonwealth
- Dubai: Minor upset in playground of the rich – or first domino of new crash?
- Warning over bank charges refund websites
- Independent travellers to get greater financial protection
Also In This Channel
More Links Within This Section
- Analysis
- Consumer news
- Features
- In focus
- Shares news
- Video news
- Budget 2009
- Cash savers
- Consumer Corner
- Debt: Take control
- Free brochures
- Interest rates
- Recycle
- Shopping guide
- Bank accounts
- Credit cards
- Credit reports: free
- Currency
- Free brochures
- Insurance
- Isas
- Loans
- Mortgages
- Property
- Save energy
- Savings
- Shares
- Small business
- A-Z of tools
- Ask the experts
- Bank charges
- Buy-to-let
- Cars: reducing costs
- Debt advice
- Find an adviser
- Find a solicitor
- Forums: Share views
- Green money
- Info for young adults
- Legal
- Pensions
- Property investing
- Saving for children
- Tax
- Discount vouchers
- Earn cashback
- Home office
- Online bargains
Tiscali Quicklinks. Please visit our Accessibility Page for a list of the Access Keys you can use to find your way around the site, skip directly to the main navigation, to the page content, or to more links within money.
- Friday , November 27, 2009
- Make Tiscali my homepage
Page Footer
Access keys
You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
- (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
- (1) Navigate to Home page.
- (2) Navigate to My email.
- (3) Navigate to My Account.
- (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
- (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
- (6) Navigate to Members channel.
- (7) Navigate to Services channel.
- (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
- (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
- ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
- (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
- (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
- (x) Text only version of this page.
