#BackTheFuture
A group of consumers compromising bankers, lawyers, accountants and law enforcement came together a few months ago after being frustrated with the current services out there that are supposed to be helping victims of financial fraud. Victims of fraud and scams whether that be bank fraud, internet fraud , text scams etc are the largest crime in terms of numbers in the UK and yet there’s very little help out there.
We researched and found the services available aren’t fit for purpose and there’s no one that fights for the victims or are willing to go up against the banks and scammers .
The Financial Ombudsman Service is funded by the banks and has 12 month waiting times before being able to investigate cases. They also only deal with FCA regulated companies only so many people and businesses are unable to utilise them
Then there’s Action Fraud who are a reporting service only . Victims can report a fraud to them ( which is still recommended) but then nothing happens after this . The victim is effectively left to it. We found no specialist service that would be out there to help these victims let alone help recover their money . We did however find some claims management companies who take large percentages of the amounts recovered and we think this is unfair .
As a group of volunteers we have invested time and money into the set up of the Scam Investigation Service and currently customers will contact us via our website or social media , however more people need to know about us . We’ve approached industry ( banks etc) who’ve not been open to a service that promotes itself as being on the victims side !
We are also have ex bankers working with us so know exactly what the banks should be doing and they’re not doing it !
We charge a one off fee of £99 to cover our costs only but we do need to get out there and the only way to do this is to spend on advertising via google and social media .
We need to apply for Financial Condict Authority regulation and there is a cost associated with this .
In essence we are currently looking for the following :
1. £3000 to apply for CMC status with the FCA
2. £12,000 to fund google and social media advertising for the next six months
3. ££5000 to redesign our website to become more user friendly
Total £20,000