How to avoid falling victim to online, email and phone scams

theguardian.com:

Fraudsters will try to make you move money quickly by pretending your cash is at risk or that you are about to miss out on a once- in-a-lifetime deal.

They create a sense of “urgency, authority and scarcity” to put pressure on victims, says Paul Maskall, the fraud and cybercrime prevention manager at UK Finance. Their schemes often work “because we are distracted, for example on the school run or at work”.

The financial trade body has an anti-fraud campaign called Take Five, which advises consumers to stop and think before handing over any money or personal details.

If you feel under pressure to make rapid decisions, take a moment to assess the situation – just pausing for a few minutes can help you identify a fraudster.

Taking your time to reread a message can help you spot a potential scam: a fraudulent text may include spelling mistakes, while an email may be from a slightly different address to that of a legitimate person or company.

Your bank will never call you to ask you to move money into a new account, so resist any pressure from a caller to do so.

If sky-high investment returns advertised on social media seem too good to be true, they probably are. There is always time to look into a company before you trust it with any of your cash. The Get Safe Online website has a checker tool to help you quickly find out whether a page is likely to be legitimate. You can also search the Financial Conduct Authority’s online register of regulated investment firms.

A recent trend has been fraudsters pretending to be family members on WhatsApp and asking to borrow money. If you get a message like this, instead of transferring the cash, you can check whether it is genuine by taking time to contact the actual family member via another