- 2 days ago
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00This is The Real Hustle, the program which reveals the secrets behind the most popular
00:28scams and cons in Britain today.
00:32Hustlers Alex, Jess and Paul have been travelling the country to demonstrate to our hidden cameras
00:37exactly how the cons work, to make sure you'll never get cheated again.
00:42In this episode we'll see how con artists can sell a higher car over and over again,
00:48clone your cash card, palm off counterfeit notes and make money by bluejacking your phone.
00:58This is The Real Hustle.
01:03Hustlers Paul and Alex have hired a nice, shiny silver car, but it's not because they fancy
01:08going for a spin.
01:10In fact, they're going to use it to demonstrate a scam that is catching out unwary car buyers
01:15across the country.
01:17They start off by changing the number plates to fake ones and removing any higher company
01:24stickers from the car and the key ring.
01:26They don't want to leave any evidence that could lead back to them after this scam has finished,
01:30because this scam is going to leave a lot of people feeling very angry indeed.
01:35This is the higher car scam.
01:42The guys drop off the car at an empty house they have taken over for this scam.
01:47They have put an outwardly paper offering this 12 grand car for £7,500.
01:54They're hoping to tempt their mark with the promise of a bargain.
02:00Jess is going to be running the hustle.
02:02She's playing a young mum who's been dropped in at the dinner house.
02:06She's brought a box of toys and Alex has left the child's bike in the drive.
02:10His props will come into play later.
02:15Alex and Paul have done their part for now and they promptly leave.
02:19Someone has arrived to look at the massively underpriced car.
02:30We have a mark.
02:32Now, you may be thinking that it's impossible for the hustlers to actually sell this motor.
02:37After all, they don't have any of the ownership documents
02:40and won't the higher company miss it after a couple of days.
02:43Just how does this hustle work?
02:45Let's watch it on phone.
02:53Hello there.
02:54Hi.
02:55My name's David. I come to see you about the car.
02:56Oh, right, yeah. Hi, I'm Jane. Hi, nice to meet you.
02:58I'll tell you what, let's go pop get the keys.
02:59I'll be out in a second.
03:00Do you want to have a look?
03:02Firstly, as Jess goes inside to get the keys,
03:05she grabs her baby monitor from the sofa.
03:08Remember the box of toys?
03:10The bike Alex left outside?
03:12These props are being used to set the scene.
03:14A young mum, home alone with a child.
03:17She can't possibly be a hustler, right?
03:19Nice car, isn't it?
03:20Yeah, it's lovely.
03:21How long have you had it?
03:22Oh, it's my husband's.
03:23He got it in September last year.
03:25Okay.
03:26So, not very long.
03:27Next, Jess mentions a fictional husband.
03:29But he isn't around.
03:30So, where is he?
03:32All is about to become clear.
03:35You've got the V5 document, have you?
03:37I haven't actually got any documents with me,
03:38because my husband's getting a new taxpayer disc this morning.
03:41He's got everything with him in his briefcase.
03:43That's why the whole day's been messed up, really,
03:44because he's been called into work.
03:46I've got the little one with me.
03:48So, the fictional husband's not around because he's going to pay the road tax.
03:52And with the vehicle documents in his possession,
03:54the mark has no way of discovering the truth about the higher car.
03:58All he can do is take your word for it.
04:00The ruse is set.
04:02Now is the time for Jess to strike.
04:05But we do have a few more people coming this afternoon.
04:09And because, you know, we're wanting a quick sale, basically.
04:12It's a great deal.
04:13It will go this afternoon sometime.
04:14But if you are genuinely interested, what I can do is,
04:17if you give me maybe a small deposit, say, 250,
04:20I can't sell the rest of the people this afternoon,
04:22because you do sound, you know, interested.
04:24So, that's her game.
04:26Instead of selling the car, Jess intends to take a deposit on it.
04:29Actually, she intends to take as many deposits as she can before the day is out.
04:35Jess takes him into the house to take his deposit.
04:39That's for you anyway.
04:40Right, thank you very much.
04:41She hands over a worthless receipt.
04:44And that's 250 quid in the kitty.
04:49Mark number two arrives, and Jess gives him the same spiel.
04:53It's cheap, isn't it? Why is it so cheap?
04:56Because we're just wanting a quick sale.
04:58I hope we've got a company car now.
04:59And it works.
05:01Again, the bargain price entices him into leaving the deposit.
05:04100, did you say?
05:06Yeah, 100.
05:07Jess's total is now 350 pounds.
05:12The third mark is also key.
05:14Alright, if I leave the deposit today, when could I pick it up?
05:18Obviously, I know you'd have to talk to your husband.
05:20And leaves another 100 to secure the car for himself until 6 o'clock.
05:24300 pounds there.
05:25Jess now has 450 pounds.
05:28Our fourth mark ups the ante and hands over 300 pounds.
05:33Erm, 300 did you say, yeah?
05:35Yeah, 300.
05:36Bringing the total to 750.
05:38Erm, yeah, so I'll write you out of a receipt anyway.
05:42And mark number five gives her all the cash she has on her.
05:45260 pounds.
05:47Jess is taking over a grand now.
05:51See you at 6 o'clock, yeah?
05:52Absolutely, yeah.
05:53Lovely.
05:54All the marks have been told to come back at 6pm to complete the transaction.
05:59But the hustlers have no intention of hanging around to meet them.
06:03They're off quick shop to count the cash and give back the hire car.
06:07The price of the car is so attractive that you just can't resist.
06:11It's such a nice looking car for that amount of money.
06:13How can you not pay a deposit?
06:15It's the greed factor, isn't it?
06:17It is the greed factor.
06:18You're putting the mark onto a position where he thinks he's ripping you off
06:21because he's getting such a cheap deal.
06:23So, what happened to our marks when they turned up that evening to seal the deal?
06:27By the time they all turned up at 6 o'clock when I told them to return,
06:31me, the money and the car were all long gone.
06:37Hello.
06:38I'm here to see you.
06:39It was here earlier.
06:41What?
06:42Yeah, I'm actually here to see him because I put a deposit on it.
06:46Yeah, I put a deposit on the same car.
06:48Yeah, and I don't need as well, £100.
06:51I've always seen you.
07:01Do you live here?
07:02No.
07:03I was here.
07:04Oh.
07:05Yeah, see me.
07:06Me?
07:07No, no one's here.
07:08The car's in the driver.
07:09Do you guys know any of you?
07:10No, I don't know any of you.
07:11No, I don't know any of you.
07:12We've just come here.
07:13I saw the car this morning.
07:14Yeah.
07:15Somebody at some point in a scam will push a time element on you.
07:17They'll say, oh, well, you need to leave the money now because it might go later.
07:22If you start hearing all that stuff and yet you don't have the physical evidence in front
07:34of you that the car is genuine, be very wary.
07:38Be very wary.
07:39No, no, I didn't think anything at all.
07:41I mean, to be honest, when Jane opened the door and I saw her, she's a lovely looking girl.
07:45The first thing I thought was, ooh, you know.
07:47And I suppose that did kind of, if it had been like a big 12 stone gorilla there, or
07:5212 stone, 20 stone gorilla, maybe I wouldn't have handed over the 100 pounds so easily.
08:03Counterfeiting's a serious crime that can affect individuals and businesses of all kinds.
08:08In 2004, around 325,000 counterfeits were taken out of circulation.
08:14Now another way of putting that is to say that there are about 6,000 genuine notes for every counterfeit.
08:21But of course, counterfeiting's a very serious crime.
08:24So nearly every one of those counterfeits represents a crime.
08:28You know, it's one thing being able to create good counterfeit money,
08:31but it has to stand up to some kind of inspection.
08:34But what would be really clever is to pass the money in such a way that it's not inspected.
08:39And that's exactly the kind of scam that a good hustler will come up with
08:43to avoid having the counterfeit money checked at all.
08:46Paul has come to this corner shop to demonstrate a scam
08:50that's losing unaware shopkeepers thousands of pounds a year.
08:53The shop's been rigged with our hidden cameras to cover the action.
08:57Hiya.
08:58Hiya.
08:59Good evening, sir.
09:00This is the counterfeit cash con.
09:02Let's get it for you.
09:03Shopkeepers who operate tills are constantly on the lookout for fake notes.
09:07But here's a trick that all shop owners should definitely be aware of.
09:10Paul's about to demonstrate how he could pass counterfeit notes if he wanted to.
09:15Paul buys some chewing gum and a cheap DVD.
09:18You'll see what the DVD is for in a minute.
09:21Can you break that?
09:23Yes, sure.
09:24Sorry, sir.
09:25Don't quit.
09:26Paul pays the shopkeeper with a genuine £50 note.
09:28Now keep your eye on Paul's left hand.
09:31Did you see it?
09:33He slips some notes from his pocket under the DVD box.
09:38The shopkeeper gives Paul his change, his 220s and some coins.
09:43Thank you very much.
09:46As he distracts the shopkeeper by dropping his change.
09:49Do you have any tens as well?
09:50Would that be okay?
09:51Yeah.
09:52Paul swaps the real notes that just came out of the till for his own special 20s.
09:56And because the normally cautious shopkeeper thought those notes had just come out of his own till,
10:00he swaps them for genuine tenors without question.
10:04The shopkeeper was lucky, but if Paul wanted to, he could have just walked away with £40 in profit at the shop's expense.
10:11A lot of people might be tempted to throw away a counterfeit, but because it's a crime,
10:16it's very important, I think, that they hand them in to the police or hand them in to their local bank or post office
10:22so that actually we can collect the evidence about the counterfeits to help us understand what's going on better.
10:29Sources have reported that Britain is in the grip of a high-tech crime wave, and one of the latest targets is one of our closest friends, the mobile phone.
10:42Experts have discovered a security flaw in some of the most popular Bluetooth-enabled phones that allows others to hack into your handset and take control of it.
10:58Our hustlers are going to demonstrate for our hidden cameras just how vulnerable your phone can be to a silent attack.
11:05This is the Bluetooth scan.
11:08The problem with some Bluetooth phones is you can make an unauthorised connection to the phone and effectively take over the phone,
11:15read the contents out, so the phone book, SMS messages, even actually make calls with it.
11:22So, how does the Bluetooth hack work? Our hustlers are going to demonstrate it here.
11:27Jess and Paul's phones have their Bluetooth turned on.
11:30Alex uses his mobile pocket PC.
11:33Because of a security flaw in Jess's phone, he is able to locate the Bluetooth signal,
11:39move into the handset and take control of it.
11:42Now we can make a call from Jess's phone to Paul's phone.
11:45This technique is known as Blue Jacky.
11:49The Bluetooth Hustle works by using the Bluetooth feature on mobile phones.
11:55It's a very modern, very useful, very easy piece of technology.
12:00They can connect to your phone without you knowing it.
12:03Your phone will not even show that it's connected to something.
12:07They're now ready to test it on the public.
12:10Alex has set his pocket computer to search for Bluetooth signals.
12:16Now he's pinpointed a mark with an enabled handset.
12:21He can go for the high.
12:23Now he's in and making a call using the Mark's phone.
12:28But where's the actual scam here?
12:30It's in the number that Alex is calling from the Mark's phone.
12:33Our hustlers have set up the loan premium rate line where calls are charged at £1.50 a minute.
12:39So this guy is having the money taken from his pocket but he's totally oblivious.
12:44And if the Mark doesn't realise his phone is calling the Hustlers premium line,
12:48during his journey between Manchester and Liverpool he will lose £75 in call charges.
12:54Ouch.
12:55So if Alex spends some time here, he can really take home the bacon.
13:00In an hour he manages to target 20 phones with an average call time of 15 minutes,
13:05making him a grand total of £500.
13:08Our hustlers have proved for those with the technology and the know-how,
13:12this is a really money spinning scam.
13:14The simplest and best way to protect yourself against this scam is just simply to keep your Bluetooth turned off
13:20unless you're actually using it.
13:22If you do not switch off the Bluetooth feature on your phone when you're not using it,
13:26you're in danger of somebody finding a way in.
13:36This is a really interesting bet because it looks like a magic trick
13:39but in actual fact we use it to steal money from the till.
13:43People often like to perform tricks at bars.
13:45Barmen do tricks themselves to amuse their guests.
13:49But my advice would be when those tricks start involving cash,
13:52just keep your wits about you and be a bit wary.
13:55Paul has come to a busy bar to perform another proposition bet.
13:59Our cameras have been hidden amongst the crowd to capture the action.
14:02He's been entertaining the punters at the bar with a few simple magic tricks
14:06and has got a bit of a crowd together.
14:09He doesn't know it, but this barman is about to be pleased for £40.
14:13Just watch how this hustle works.
14:15Did you ever do it for money?
14:16Not really.
14:17You want to see something for money?
14:18I mean...
14:19I'm not gambling money.
14:20Oh, come on.
14:21It's just a little bit...
14:22I promise you, if I can do it, it is the most amazing thing you've ever seen.
14:26Okay.
14:27Let's go.
14:28Go to the till.
14:29Okay.
14:30Take a £20 note.
14:31Bring it here.
14:32There you go.
14:33Right.
14:34If I just walk out with that, that's pretty magic.
14:42I'm going to do a trick.
14:43I'm going to do a trick that you won't forget.
14:44Okay?
14:45This could be any £20 note.
14:46So, have you got a pen?
14:47Yeah.
14:48Like a nice thick one?
14:49Yeah.
14:50Perfect.
14:51Do me a favour to write your name on there.
14:53That's completely against the law.
14:55I'll confiscate the evidence when we're done.
14:58If I can do a miracle with this, I get to keep the £20 note.
15:01But it has to be something absolutely out of control.
15:04Amazing, yeah.
15:05Out of control.
15:06Do me a favour.
15:07Take it.
15:08You've got a napkin.
15:09Yeah, yeah.
15:10Like a hanky or something.
15:12Do me a favour.
15:13There's nothing in there.
15:14Just check that out.
15:15Fold it in half.
15:18Like that.
15:19Alright.
15:20Fold it in half again.
15:24Alright, let me see it.
15:27Like what?
15:28I'm going to fold it in half one more time.
15:30Give me a favour.
15:31Just hold it here like that.
15:32Okay?
15:33Don't move.
15:34Nothing at all in a napkin.
15:36Alright?
15:39Yeah?
15:40Yeah.
15:41This is what I'm going to do.
15:43Put that here.
15:44Okay?
15:47Put it in there like that.
15:48Now can you feel that?
15:49Just feel it underneath.
15:50Don't look.
15:51Just feel it underneath.
15:52Okay?
15:53Alright.
15:54You want to feel it?
15:55Make sure it's there.
15:56Feeling only.
15:57It's there.
15:58You want to do it?
15:59Just go underneath it.
16:00There you go.
16:01Alright.
16:02And there.
16:03Now you notice that I never reach underneath.
16:05Okay?
16:09And twist it off like that.
16:10Okay?
16:11Don't put any holes in it.
16:12Nothing like that.
16:13It's a little bit loose in there.
16:16Now watch.
16:21Now go to my pocket.
16:27This is why we do it because you're 20 pound now.
16:28How do you feel now?
16:29I told you it's a trick you'd never forget, right?
16:45I mean, exactly.
16:46At the beginning, what?
16:47A couple of minutes ago, you went to the till.
16:48You took out a 20 pound note.
16:49You wrote your name on it.
16:50It went in there.
16:51We all checked it was in there first.
16:52And then we burned it.
16:53There's no way anything else could have happened.
16:54No.
16:55Do me a favor.
16:56Go back to the till.
16:57Go back to the till.
16:58Take out a 20 pound note and see what's written on it.
17:00No way.
17:01No way.
17:02Is that it?
17:03That's the one.
17:04I think the agreement was if I did something that you wouldn't forget.
17:05It's yours.
17:06It's yours.
17:07Thank you very much.
17:08All right.
17:09Take care, guys.
17:10Bye-bye.
17:11So it was an impressive trick.
17:12Paul won 20 pounds.
17:13So it was an impressive trick.
17:14Paul won 20 pounds.
17:15I'm going to go back to the till.
17:16Take out a 20 pound note and see what's written on it.
17:17I think the agreement was if I did something that you wouldn't forget.
17:18It's yours.
17:19It's yours.
17:20Thank you very much.
17:21All right.
17:22Take care, guys.
17:23Bye-bye.
17:24So it was an impressive trick.
17:37Paul won 20 pounds fair and square off the barman.
17:40Right?
17:41Wrong.
17:42Paul has actually ended up 40 pounds in profit, as we mentioned earlier.
17:46So how did he do it?
17:49Remember when Paul asked the crowd to check he had a note hidden under the paper napkin?
17:53Well, one member of the crowd is actually fellow hostler Alex.
17:57Alex has now nicked the barman's 20.
18:00I never reach underneath, okay?
18:02And he's off to play his role in the con.
18:05He goes down to the other end of the bar.
18:08Where Jess has been keeping the barmaid distracted.
18:12By simply ordering a drink, Alex gets the bar lady to do his dirty work.
18:18The sign 20 really is now back in the till.
18:21But here's the clever bit.
18:23A barmaid has given Alex his drink and the change from the 20-pound note.
18:27But actually, Alex was paying for the drink with a note that already belonged to the bar.
18:32So far, the hustlers are up a bottle of beer and the change from 20 quid.
18:37Next, as the trip draws to a close, Paul asks the barman to check in the till for the signed note.
18:43Sure enough, it's in there.
18:45As he hands it over, the barman knows he's lost 20 pounds on this bet.
18:50But since he doesn't know how it was done, he still doesn't know about the other 20 that came out of the till and changed.
18:57Bar staff will never realise until it's time to cash up at the end of the night.
19:01Pinch and push is a technique where the pickpocket pinches the surface of your jeans.
19:30And then with another finger, pushes up against your wallet.
19:33And because your wallet is between your jeans and you, you don't feel the pinch.
19:37And when you pull back on the material and push up with the wallet, there's enough room that you cannot feel the wallet moving.
19:44The general rule is, if it's easy for you to get at it, it's easy for the pickpocket to get at it.
19:49Put it in your front pocket, it's always there.
19:51And if anybody were to go into that pocket, you'd know about it.
19:54But you put it in your back pocket, it's out of sight, it's out of mind, and it could be out of your pocket before you know it.
19:59The Hustlers have come to a shopping centre to perform a wallet snatch for our hidden cameras.
20:06This is the Pinch Push Pocket Pick.
20:09Notice how they take up strategic positions.
20:12Paul is the pickpocket who will perform the dip.
20:15He's stationed in the area below the escalators.
20:18And Alex will be the runner.
20:20He's in position at the top of the escalators.
20:24All they need now is a mark.
20:28And there he is.
20:29That's their mark.
20:30Paul pretends to bump into the mark and apologises for nudging him.
20:39This is the key manoeuvre.
20:40He's pinched the Mark's back pocket and pushed his wallet up.
20:43That's why it's called the Pinch Push.
20:45Now the wallet's right for the plug-in.
20:47As Alex the runner approaches down the escalator, Paul makes his move.
20:52And there it is.
20:57Alex is off undetected.
20:59And the mark is one wallet poorer.
21:05Terrible place to put something.
21:06It's a terrible place to put anything of value.
21:08If you put something in your back pocket, someone's going to take it.
21:11Organized crime gangs are operating cash machine fraud all over the UK.
21:27In 2004, the total sum of money lost was a staggering £75 million.
21:32And one of the most common methods comm men use to commit cash fraud is with a fixed device that is very tricky to spot.
21:40Our hustlers are going to demonstrate for our secret cameras how a con artist can rig a cash point with a device that will clone your cash card and enable them to steal money from your account.
21:51One of the most prevalent scams in recent years has been the placing of card readers on ATMs.
21:56The idea is simple.
21:57You put a shell over the ATM so that it looks like a legitimate part of that device.
22:03Victims come up and place their credit card or ATM card into this, enter their code, withdraw money, and then receive their card back.
22:12What they don't realize is that in between their transaction is an illegal device that reads every single piece of data on your card and records it.
22:25Hustler Paul, rigged up with a camera hidden in his bag, enters a shop which has a cash machine inside.
22:34In his hand he has what is known as a skimming device.
22:40Now that the coast is clear, he moves in to fit the device over the card in the slot.
22:47This device works in two ways.
22:49The skimmer is able to read the magnetic stripe of your card and is fitted with a hidden mini camera that is overlooking the pin pad to record the pin number.
23:02Jess now comes to use the cash point ahead of another queuing customer.
23:06He will be our first mark.
23:08What this move does is to prove subconsciously to the mark that the machine is perfectly safe.
23:18Having seen Jess successfully get some cash out, the mark will suspend any possible suspicions that he might have.
23:25Now the first mark inserts his card.
23:27The skimmer reads his card details whilst the camera clearly captures his four digit pin.
23:32His card is returned and he takes his cash.
23:37Even though the cash has come out, he's already lost out.
23:41His details have been captured by the hustlers and yet he doesn't suspect a thing.
23:46And now comes mark number two.
23:48Again the machine reads the magnetic stripe on his card and the camera records his pin.
23:53Once our second mark has collected his cash and left the shop, Paul will move in to collect the skimmer.
24:10With two sets of card details backed, our hustlers will show us how this becomes a money spinner.
24:15Essentially the next step after having read the cards and taken the device off the cash machine is downloading all the information from the card reader onto a laptop.
24:29Then the hustlers would use a very cheap card reader themselves, which you connect up to your laptop.
24:35What that enables them to do is to program other cards.
24:38Now all they need is another card with a magnetic strip on the back.
24:43Mobile top-up cards seem to be the hustlers' favourites at the moment.
24:47Any mobile top-up cards will do.
24:49They take them, swipe them once to erase them, and then swipe them again, thus programming them with the card details of one of the numerous cards that they've copied.
24:59Now armed with that, they can now go to a cash machine, stick that top-up card in any cash machine, and withdraw cash.
25:06Mobile phone top-up cards?
25:09Don't believe us? Just check this out.
25:14Alex is now going to use this clone card in this ATM.
25:19He inserts the card.
25:21He uses the Mark's pin recorded on the minicam.
25:46And manages to withdraw this £100 cash.
25:50He later returned the money.
25:52But some of the devices being used by the real thieves are even more elaborate.
25:58This one here is basically the whole fascia that would go over a cash point machine.
26:05As you can see, it's very authentic looking.
26:08It's got all the stickers that would normally be on a normal cash point.
26:10That would be stuck down with double-sided tape onto the cash point.
26:14So the rear of it is quite crude.
26:16You can see that it's all bits of electronics stuck in with different forms of airfix and airfix type glue.
26:23Made up of bits of card.
26:24You can see all the bits of card they use to create the slots.
26:27And to the top of the ATM, they'll put normally something like this.
26:33The side here, you have a little pinhole camera.
26:36And there's certain bits of electronics that are stripped out of cameras and what have you.
26:41And that takes a picture of you putting your pin number in.
26:45There's a couple of things you should definitely watch out for when you're using your cash card at any cash machine anywhere in the world.
26:51Number one, if there's anything protruding, sticking out, looking suspicious anywhere near where the card slot is, do not use that machine.
26:59Try and find another one.
27:00And number two, and most importantly of all, always shield your pin.
27:06Remember, if hustlers get what's on the back of a magnetic strip, they cannot use it without your pin number.
27:16So, that's it for this week.
27:19Our hustlers have sold a hire car over and over again.
27:23Made premium rate calls on other people's mobiles.
27:27And cloned some cash point cards.
27:31But don't worry.
27:32All the people who got ripped off were given their money back.
27:35Just remember the rule of the real hustle.
27:37If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Comments