Voucher fraud - how employers' social media can put staff at risk

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We hear from a new starter whose boss asked her to buy £800 of vouchers - but it turned out to be a scam. Employers’ social media could be putting staff at risk from fraudsters, but to whom can victims turn for compensation? Dr Elisabeth Carter, criminologist and forensic linguist at the University of Roehampton tells us how scammers use a technique known as "genre mapping".

Many of us who are self-employed or with side hustles channel the income through our personal accounts, but as one Money Box listener and yoga teacher found out, it can lead to your personal account being suddenly frozen. Andy Chamberlain from IPSE - The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed - lays out account holders' rights.

If you're half of one of the almost one in 10 married couples with an age gap of more than 10 years, your pension could take a surprise hit in the event of your partner dying. Many pension schemes contain a discretionary clause known as the “young spouse discount.” One Money Box listener tells us how her pension was unexpectedly and substantially reduced when her husband of 40 years died - because he was 25 years older than her. We also hear from former pensions minister, Steve Webb, partner at the pensions analysts, Lane, Clark and Peacock.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Paul Waters Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researcher: Kafui Okpattah

Transcript

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0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:07.0	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.0	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:14.0	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for Lucan.
0:21.6	It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime.
0:25.6	I'm Alex von Tundselman.
0:27.6	This is The Lucan Obsession.
0:29.6	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:32.6	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:36.6	Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast.
0:39.3	Many couples have a big age difference, but do they all know that that could hit their pension provision?
0:45.3	We'll hear from a listener who's getting much less than she and her late husband expected.
0:50.3	And are you sticking to the T's and C's of your current account? We'll find out why some people
0:55.5	with a side hustle have found their finances frozen. First though, we all know how nerve-wracking
1:01.1	a new job can be and how important it is to try and impress the new boss. But it seems
1:07.0	criminals know that too and they exploit it. We're about to meet someone we're calling
1:12.0	Mary. It's not her real name. She started a new job after taking time out to have a baby.
1:18.0	Staff at her new employer was still working remotely, and so did she. And then one morning,
1:23.1	she received an urgent email, seemingly from her new boss. Mary, thank you very much for joining us.
1:29.4	Thank you, Felicity.
1:30.7	Tell us what happened to you next.
	...

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