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Bill Cunningham has been a Scam Champion for Trading Standards for eight years and has spent a lot of time throughout Surrey delivering presentations about scams for community groups and companies. For many, Bill has alerted them just in time or made them hesitate against acting when contacted out of the blue.
This month, Bill has kindly written a short article on scammers and what to be aware of.
In 2023, over 3 million frauds were committed in England and Wales and there’s every indication that this figure has not plateaued. In fact, there has been a significant rise in scams via social media.
It is very challenging to stop the scammers and we need as many tools as possible to fight against them. Banks give us nudge warnings when we try to pay a stranger by sending online payments to their bank. This can happen when scammers attempt APP (Authorised Push Payment) fraud where they lead us to believe we are in a safe payment process for a transaction.
This type of scam can cause a lot of damage, not only to one’s purse but psychologically, especially if that person has been a victim of romance fraud or has had their identity stolen.
Scammers are acutely aware of social media trends and exploit any confusion that we may have about grants and allowances and new rules about how we conduct our lives. To avoid being a scam victim we must know what a scam looks like for they don’t arrive with a scam warning sticker.
There are tell-tale signs that we should look out for in a phone call, email or text message from a stranger, or an uncharacteristic and urgent plea from a friend to send money because they are in critical need of a loan.
In general, these include a request to hand over our banking details or send money. This could be a call urging us to act immediately where they can lead us to believe there is a threat that something bad will happen to us if we do not follow the instructions.
Usually, the scammer will be a stranger claiming to be from companies such as HMRC, Amazon, Microsoft, a parcel courier, a bank’s anti-fraud department or even the police. The contact will be unexpected and we will be urged to take quick action. We will be told that the action they are advising will stop harm coming to us or that we will otherwise miss out on an opportunity if we hesitate.
We could be asked to verify/confirm personal information and be told not to divulge the communication to anyone else. The latter is a sure sign of a scam and our reaction to it is to tell friends and family immediately. We may be told of a promise of untold rewards/a unique opportunity to invest in a very high percentage return investment.
We must always turn down an instruction to download a file on our computer or click on a link or allow anyone to remotely take control of our computer. Most of us have had a call on our landline to hear that we have a fault with our broadband or it is a person claiming to be from Microsoft to sort out why our computer is operating slowly. We should not engage with either under any circumstances.
If we learn we have won a prize but we are told we must pay a small admin charge to access that prize, that is also indication of a scam. If the communication is out of the blue, is very unusual, or is tempting or frightening, then it is likely to be a scam.
Sometimes we think that they know all about us! But they do not. They could very well know something about you and they then fish for more clues whilst we’re thinking they must be genuine.
But, how do they know anything anyway? This is usually because we’ve put that information ‘out there’. This could be via social media and what we reveal about ourselves online such as our family members, where we’re going or have been on holiday, what we’ve recently bought, how our puppy is behaving etc.
Excellent sources for advice for scams include the Trading Standards Alert publication online every two weeks and Which? too. Signing up to receive both via email is one way to keep abreast of the latest scams to look out for.
Together, we won’t be able to stop all scammers in their tracks but we can be better informed about their operating methods and be less likely to fall into their traps.
If you would like to get in touch with Bill and organise a presentation to your group and/or send you monthly articles on scamming, you can reach him at [email protected].
The National Cyber Security Centre also offer advice on how to spot a scam email, text message or call. You are also able to report these scams to them. There is also government advice available here.
We also released an article this year on Cyber Security and the most common types of charity cyber attack, which you can read here.
Find out about local volunteering opportunities and keep up to date with local events & fundraising news by subscribing to one of our bulletins.