Staying safe from scams and what to do if you’re caught out

Online fraud and scams come in many forms, including fake websites or online adverts, scammers taking over email accounts, malware and computer viruses and fake investment opportunities, cryptocurrency offers and trading platforms.

Often, scammers try and get hold of your personal information through emails or texts that look like they come from a legitimate source, like a large and well-known company,  or a government department – or they might even appear to be from someone you know.

Take care with links and downloads, and when shopping online for purchases like cars or holidays.

• Pay close attention to how you’ve been addressed in the email – scams may not contains your name in full, correctly or at all.
• Where the email is coming from – at first glance, the name of the sender might look like a company you recognise, but double check the email address it’s been sent from. Scam messages won’t always be able to use real domains (like ‘[email protected]’) and instead will often use misspelled or random email addresses.
• However, scammers can hack into email accounts and impersonate the business or individual using their actual email address. Fraudsters sometimes monitor communication styles to make correspondence believable. Make sure you check the sender is who you think it is – even if it joins an existing message thread you know to be authentic. Don’t be afraid to double-check and call the company directly on a number you trust.
• Don’t click on a link if you think it’s suspicious - if the email talks about a problem with an account, go to the company or organisation website directly and log into your account to check. Don’t rely on the link provided if you’re suspicious. 
• Use secure websites – if you’re making an online purchase, check that the website is a secure one with a padlock icon in the web address bar and that it has https:// in the address bar. These aren’t always guarantees, but are a good starting point
• Pop ups – messages online asking you to give out personal information unprompted can sometimes come up, so the best thing to do is close the window and not input any personal information. You can also activate ‘pop-up blockers’ on your web browser to help with this.

Many of us share information about ourselves on social media to connect with family, friends and people across the world. But this can create opportunities for scammers to access to your personal information. This could be through using the information you  share on your social media accounts – or using social media to advertise or offer products and services that aren’t legitimate.

What to look out for

• Suspicious direct messages or posts to your feeds – these might appear unprompted or appear to be from friends or contacts, making a request for money or with an offer of a deals or product that doesn’t seem realistic or sounds too good to be true, sometimes with a link to a fake website which ask you to input your personal information.
• People selling tickets to events (like concerts, festivals or shows) that seem too good to be true – either because the event is sold out, or the price seems cheap. It may turn out that the tickets are fake, or never arrive. 
• Adverts on social media – adverts for fake products or investments might include testimonials from customers who don’t exist, or unproven or false claims about a product’s effectiveness. If you’re unsure about a product, do some further research to make sure that the information is correct. This includes adverts for fake investment opportunities or ways to buy cryptocurrency, promising high returns or that you’ll “get rich quick”.
• Your privacy settings – when you sign up to a social media account, they’ll ask you to provide certain key pieces of information. But it’s worth revisiting your privacy settings on a regular basis to make sure that you’re only sharing your information with the people you want to see it. Strong privacy settings means that you can limit what advertisers and scammers can see about you.

Scams sometimes start with a text message or email that gathers some personal information or detail that leads on to a phone call, and some door-to-door scams help gather personal details to be used at a later date.

What to look out for 

• Don’t get pressured into signing up, buying or giving out information if you don’t feel comfortable – scammers will try and make you feel like you’re going to miss out on something, using phrases like ‘time-limited’ or ‘time-sensitive’ to pressure you into revealing information. They’ll also be very insistent on getting this information from you without giving any real reason for it.
• Just because someone has an official-looking badge with them, it doesn’t mean that they are who they say they are. Don’t allow anyone you don't know to come into your home , or to pressure you into sharing information, if they turn up unannounced. Feel confident in telling them that you’re not interested and close the door.
• Deals and offers that come out of the blue – scammers will often call about offers that aren’t relevant to you or aren’t something that you’ve asked for. This could range from pension reviews, computer software issues or investigating an ‘accident’ you’ve been in. If you’ve not requested this information first, tell the caller you’re not interested and hang up.
• Double check phone numbers – just because the telephone number appears to be the same as your bank’s or any other institution, don’t assume it is. Put the phone down then call them directly

Romance scams involve a scammer making their victim believe that they have a genuine romantic relationship in order to trick them into giving them money or personal information.

Victims of this type of fraud may have joined an online dating service or been contacted by someone displaying interest in them, sometimes through social media (like Facebook or Instagram), messaging services (like WhatsApp) and online games. A relationship develops but at some point the victim will be asked for money by the scammer to help pay for something – sometimes this is travel or visa application costs so they can meet in person, or money for a family member or close friend who is severely ill and needs treatment. 

At first, the money is sent in good faith as there seems to be a real relationship, but then the scammer will come back with more requests for money. From what we’ve seen, people only realise they’ve been scammed once the money has run out, or when there's been a lack of contact from the scammer after money’s been sent. This type of scam is often under-reported. People can feel embarrassed about the situation and worry about the level of intrusion into their privacy. There’s also often large sums of money involved.

What to look out for 

• Trust your instincts – if something feels wrong when you’re talking, it’s ok to break off contact with that person. You can give a brief explanation if you want, but you don't have to. 
• Is the picture real – if someone's profile picture looks a little too perfect, you could try a reverse image search online to make sure it's not a stock photo, a photo of a model, celebrity or online influencer. 
• Protect your personal information – don’t feel like you have to tell the other person every detail of your life immediately. Build up trust slowly, keep your details safe and secure and only reveal what they need to know. If you let someone know your full name, address and date of birth, this can be used to steal your identity. 
• The balance of the conversations – scammers will often try to find out as much information about you as possible and as quickly as they can, and not really reveal much about themselves. This is so they can find the best way to target you and get the information they want or get you to sympathise and give your money to them. 
• Sending money overseas – if you’re sending money to someone overseas there can be less protection if you do find out you’re a scam victim, so if you’re concerned about this, speak to your bank or use a trusted money transfer service. 

Marta spotted an advert online that appeared to be endorsed by a well-known TV star. It promised big returns by investing in cryptocurrency, along with an investment manager to do all the work for her.  

At first, the investment appeared to be doing very well. Marta added more money over time. But when she tried to withdraw the money, she was told she’d need to pay a huge fee to release it. Then, she found it increasingly difficult to get hold of the investment manager. Marta started to worry she’d been scammed.  She turned to her bank for help, but when her bank refused to refund the money, she didn't feel she’d been treated fairly.  

What happened next?   

Marta searched online for how to complain about a bank after a scam and found our contact details. She approached us to make a complaint about what had happened. We looked into whether her bank should have suspected she was being scammed and done more for her. We found that Marta’s bank could have done more to warn her and asked them to refund some of the money she’d lost. 

Read the full case study

Bilal runs a small business. He was due to pay a supplier. He received two emails from them, one with the invoice and the second asking him to send the money to a different account as the usual account was being audited and couldn’t receive payments. 

Bilal sent the money. A while later, he heard from the supplier asking why he hadn’t paid the invoice. It turned out a fraudster had accessed the supplier’s emails and had intercepted the email chain. Bilal got in touch with his bank to see if they could help. 

What happened next? 

Bilal’s bank said he hadn’t checked properly before making the payment, and had ignored a warning before sending the money, so said it would not refund the payment. 

Bilal got in touch with us and asked us to look into what had happened. Overall, after we reviewed the details, we didn’t think the bank had treated Bilal fairly, and asked them to refund the money in full. 

Read the full case study