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‘It’s the season of scammers – but here is how to protect yourself and your money’

As the sales hit their peak and we finally get around to buying our Christmas gifts we also hit the most dangerous time of year for shoppers too. The season of online scammers.

I’ve been talking about scams a lot this week on television and radio. What’s striking is how relentlessly we are all targeted every single day by fraudsters. Some people are particularly vulnerable. Older people might not be aware of the latest cons that are doing the rounds. Younger people are disproportionately targeted because they are so digitally literate, they tend to assume online transactions are safe and protected. But the fact of the matter is we are all potentially victims of fraud.

There is good news and bad when it comes to the battle against fraudsters. According to UK Finance, £1.17billion was stolen from people in the UK last year (that we know of). Yet, £1.2billion was saved after financial institutions spotted the fraud and prevented it. We also have new regulations covering almost all financial regulations that will compel businesses to refund victims of ‘push payment fraud’ in most circumstances. This type of fraud is the one where people lose their life savings – so this news is incredibly welcome.

Sometimes writing about the fraud methods doing the rounds can feel a bit like playing ‘whack a mole’. You publicise one scam only for another three to pop up instantly. So in this article, I’m going to cover the techniques you can use to spot fraud, avoid scammers and fight back if you get ripped off.

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Don’t believe what you see

Remember anything – anything – can be convincingly faked, and it costs almost nothing to do this. Among the things you need to be wary of are websites, social media advertisements and forums, business logos and official communications, text and social media messages that that look like they’ve come from your friends or relatives and phone calls from businesses or authority figures like the police. You might think you are impervious to fraudsters, until you get a message from HMRC saying you owe them £3,000… and before you know it, you’ve called or clicked to make a complaint – and they’ve got your info.

The imperfect instant

The most effective type of fraud is where you make a split second decision to respond to something designed to provoke a reaction. This ‘bait’ is dangled by fraudsters to get you to click a link, respond to a text or answer a call, that you might have ignored had you had time to think about it.

This type of fraud is extraordinarily varied and widespread, but the end result is the same. If you get an unsolicited email, text or call from any source that asks you to provide personal data or click a link, ignore it. Go to the official website and contact the business or organisation that way.

Here’s an example I nearly fell for. I recently received an email from PayPal telling me that I’d spent £600 on a top of the range lawnmower. I don’t even have a garden, so I instantly assumed someone had managed to break in to my account and had gone shopping. Just as I was about to click through the link to the website, I stopped and did a few checks.

The email address looked legitimate… until I spotted that an ‘a’ in PayPal was actually an ‘ä’ – an umlaut, or an indication of pronunciation in a different language. This meant the fraudster could register a different email address to the official one, but one so convincingly like the original you wouldn’t notice.

Breaking news

Email, messaging and text fraud also works by hijacking current events for just long enough for you to make a mistake. Fraudsters may piggyback on topical news stories – like a bank or big business getting hacked, for example – as a way to nudge you to ‘update your details’.

If you are worrying about your tax return, then an email from fake HMRC might prompt a panic. Overspent? That text asking you to get in touch with your credit card company might make you hit the number in the message instead of the official one. Worried about a missing pet on your local social media forums?

Watch out for fake Facebook pages making ‘official’ fund-raising collections in support of the owners. A lot of this is guesswork by the fraudsters, or they are just taking a chance. But if one in 1000 people respond to a fake bank message alone, then they are quids in.

Missed a delivery…?

At this time of year, one of the craftiest and most effective types of fraud is the parcel delivery con. We are all expecting parcels at this time of year. The scam works by playing on the fear that something has gone wrong with a delivery. You’ll get a message that says that a parcel delivery was attempted and failed, either by text, WhatsApp, email or even by phone. Click the link and you’ll be asked to put in some personal details.

A variation on this con says that there’s postage to pay… at which point your bank details are required. While parcel delivery firms do send you updates by various methods of communication, always use the official website to check delivery status – never click through to a site from a link.

Email hacks

Through no fault of your own, your personal data can be hacked as a result of lax security measures at businesses. Most commonly hacked are emails and passwords which can be released publicly or traded on the dark web. With just one email and password combo, a fraudster can attempt to log in to financial businesses like banks, e-payment systems like PayPal, any retailer you’ve used and saved your payment details with, personal apps and health data and much much more.

But the scariest one – because it’s so simple – is your email itself. Have you ever emailed your passwords to yourself so you don’t forget them? How about a picture of your passport in case you lose it on holiday? In seconds, a scammer can search your email using just those two terms and if they strike gold, they can access all your accounts and even set up bank accounts or mobile phone contracts with your identification documents. In short, change all your passwords regularly, use password generators and delete any emails with this data on them.

Purchase scams

The pressure to buy the perfect gift or a moment of madness in the sales can lead us to purchase items that are outright cons or are just plain rubbish. Just because a retailer is advertising on a well known search drive or through social media doesn’t mean it’s legitimate.

It’s exceptionally easy to fake up a convincing online shop, but look for clues like firms that ask you to pay by bank transfer or through PayPal’s friends and family options. These methods of payment should never be used unless you are sure you are sending money to someone you genuinely know. That’s because you send money this way, it’s almost impossible to get it returned.

Some purchase scams are from shops operating just on the right/wrong side of the law in other countries. So that iPhone you’ve just bought for £100 might actually be a photo of an iPhone or an empty box. Ask your bank to claim the money back if this happens to you.

Fact checking

If you do get a message or communication that sounds legit, go direct to the business through their official telephone number, website or app. Never use the links or numbers that come with the original notification. If the message has come from someone you know, bear in mind it could be ‘spoofed’ (using cheap technology to make the call or message look like it’s from someone you know) or their email or social media platforms might have been hacked.

Push Payment Fraud

The big money is still in ‘push payment’ and ‘courier’ fraud. Push payment (APP fraud) is where you are tricked in to either transferring large amounts of money or handing over your bank details by fraudsters pretending to be your bank or the police, who claim your finances have been compromised.

If you are called by someone claiming this, then hang up and call your bank direct or dial 159 – a number from Stop Scams UK that connects you to your bank or even businesses like Amazon – if you can’t find the number you need in time. Courier fraud is a variation on the con where someone in authority turns up on your doorstep. Fraudsters have even been known to walk people to their banks to transfer their life savings.

Conveyancing fraud works by hijacking your email or that of solicitors, mortgage brokers or anyone who might be involved in a large transfer for a house sale or business transaction. This is harder to combat but if you change your email and work passwords regularly – particularly if there’s a large payment on the horizon – and warn all people involved not to change the payment details without checking, then you should avoid a hefty loss.

If you think you’ve been conned…

If you think you’ve been defrauded, then contact the bank or business asap. Don’t forget that you can go to the free Financial Ombudsman if you don’t think a financial business has treated you fairly. Even if you’re not sure if you have a case, you don’t lose anything by trying.

  • Martyn James is a leading consumer rights campaigner, TV and radio broadcaster and journalist

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