By Tony Booth

2008 is in its infancy, but already a new batch of complex cons and scurrilous schemes are attacking UK investors.

The perpetrators all have a single objective ... to squeeze your pockets and bank balances dry. These represent the most up-to-date assortment of sly practices and dubious individuals property investors need to be cautious about over the forthcoming weeks.

6. Pan-European Scam

The Financial Mail's reader's champion, Tony Hetherington, has reported that a notorious organisation called the European City Guide is back in business and attacking the UK, despite it being closed down in 2003.

Typically, small businesses receive an invitation to have a free listing in the business guide. All they have to do is return a signed acceptance note. A few weeks later, they are billed for anything up to £1,455, because the small print commits them to a listing on a CD for three consecutive years.

Despite being fined £200,000 and closed down by a court in Barcelona five years ago, the company moved to Valencia and started the scam all over again.

The man behind the guide is believed to be German businessman, Meinolf Ludenbach, who also controls debt companies that relentlessly pursue their victims. Labour Euro MP, Richard Corbett, told the European Parliament last year that Ludenbach's network amounts to a conspiracy to defraud small businesses throughout Europe.

Commercial landlords and other small businesses should watch out for cold mailshots from the European City Guide and, if they receive one, immediately feed it into their shredder.

7. A Sinister Scottish Scam

Investors in Scotland need to be aware of a particularly nasty mortgage scam, which is believed to be bankrolling murderous terrorist attacks in Kashmir.

MI5 have reported that around 50 Scots Asians, mostly residing in Glasgow, are raising funds for Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Kashmiri separatist group responsible for hundreds of deaths and allegedly involved in the kidnap and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

It is estimated that up to £50,000 a month is raised in Scotland to help swell the Kashmiri terrorists' coffers through mortgage fraud.

MI5 learned about the Glasgow operation through the Pakistani secret service, the ISI, who became aware of large sums of money being transferred into suspects' bank accounts.

All the Scots involved in the scam are believed to be British-born, but remain fiercely supportive of their roots. There are also known to be hot-beds of support for Kashmiri militants in London and Birmingham, though a recent crackdown has had a severe impact on their fundraising efforts in both cities.

Investors need to be extremely careful of any syndicates or grouped finance arrangements they might get involved in, particularly if the people within the syndicates are unknown to them and 'A. N. OTHER' is dealing with any mortgage application.

Meanwhile, mortgage providers in Scotland have been made fully aware of the current high level of risk to this scam - and investors are asked to acquiesce to and appreciate the need for more extensive security investigations (which may delay a sale or purchase more than normal) until this gang has been eradicated from operating in the UK.

8. The Boiler Room Scam

Trading Standards Officers in Warwickshire have received an accelerating number of reports of companies (thought to be based abroad) offering shares in American companies.

Businesses and householders have been cold-called and told of an opportunity that costs £3,000, but which could earn them £60,000 when the shares they buy are floated. Needless to say, property investors are prime targets of this particular scam.

Trading Standards say the overseas company is using hard-sell tactics to lure victims into buying into worthless companies which, despite assurances to the contrary, will produce little or no return on the £3,000 buy-in fee.

It explained that while companies in the UK offering to sell shares have to apply for a licence and abide by rules designed to protect consumers - these rules do not apply to companies operating outside the UK.

The best advice is ... if you are cold-called ... stop the conversation immediately by hanging up the phone.

Don't be intimidated, bullied or flattered into parting with any financial details, your name or address.

Even if they already know your name and some of your personal details, don't offer any additional data and don't confirm that any details they do have are accurate or not.

Always call the Financial Services Authority on 0845 606 1234 to verify a company is authorised in the UK to deal in financial matters - and even if they are, tread cautiously.

9. The Advance Fee Loan Scam

This Canadian-based scam stings consumers seeking credit in the UK. Victims have already been taken for thousands of pounds and Trading Standards are now building a sizable case against them.

Advertisements have appeared in local newspapers, offering fast loans regardless of credit history.

Consumers responding to the adverts (usually by calling a free-phone number) are quickly told their loan is approved, but that release of the loan amount is dependent on a pre-paid fee being cleared to cover insurance of the advance.

Payment is usually requested through Western Union or MoneyGram or via a money order. Surprise, surprise - once the fee is paid, the company melts into the shadows, no loan is received and the company is never heard from again.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) reports that some victims have lost up to £4,000. They are working in close liaison with the Canadian authorities to take action against the fraudsters, though so far they have not been successful in preventing the further spread of advertisements appearing in the local press throughout the UK.

Consumers that might have been asked to pay an advance fee via Western Union or MoneyGram are requested to contact the OFT on 08457 224499.
In what seems to be developing as a double sting, the OFT is also now concerned that organised criminal gangs may be using the personal details collected from victims of this scam to commit further fraud.

10. The Ghost Landlord Confidence Trick

This particular and ingenious scam was first uncovered and reported by detectives in Greater Manchester in the latter half of last year, but fears are growing that copycat operators could now be performing this 'let and run' fraud throughout the UK.

The detectives in Manchester first believed the case they broke in July 2006 was a one-off, but they eventually were astounded to have a caseload of 50 offences.

An incident usually begins with a prospective tenant or house buyer asking to borrow a key so they can pay a deciding visit to a vacant property on their own. By the time they return the key, they have already taken a copy for themselves.

The scammer then acts as a bogus landlord and lets the property to his own unsuspecting tenants, taking three months advance rent from them ... and then disappears never to be seen again.

The gall of these criminals is jaw-dropping. Solicitors in Manchester have been dealing with the fall-out of one particular case and are reported saying his landlord client was approached by a 'perfectly pleasant and plausible' prospective tenant, who expressed keen interest in renting one of his properties.

He later returned the key saying he was no longer interested, but a month later the landlord called at his property only to find it was fully tenanted by strangers. They had, in good faith, signed a tenancy agreement and were as flabbergasted as the property owner was himself.

The fraudster had apparently undercut the monthly rent of up to £1,200 to £950, just to encourage the tenants to take the property quickly.

The tenants themselves thought they were getting a good deal, but discovered they along with the real landlord had been scammed.

The solicitors in Manchester explained in a recent press report that the problem with this type of fraud is there are two sets of victims: the owners of the property, who find themselves with squatters on their premises; and the tenants, who could face eviction proceedings and will have lost a fortune in what they believed was an 'advance rent' payment.

The lesson here for landlords and property vendors is simple, don't hand out any keys to your premises to anyone, regardless how convincing their request might seem.