Protect yourself against frauds and scams

Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated in finding ways to steal your hard-earned cash.

Kennet Radio recently broadcast an interview with an expert on frauds and scams. He highlighted a helpful website run by the government and a banking industry association.

It’s called “Take Five to stop fraud” and offers lots of information on avoiding frauds and scams.

The website is based on the idea that, before clicking on any un-requested email or text, or responding to a phone call out of the blue, we should pause for five minutes and think about what’s happening – maybe talk to a family member or friend about it.

The website summarises the subject as follows:

Fraud poses a major threat to the UK…

These crimes can have a devastating impact on victims. Advanced security systems and innovations in which the finance industry invests to protect customers stopped more than £1.8 billion of unauthorised fraud. But despite this, criminals successfully stole £1.2 billion through fraud and scams in 2019.

Take Five is a national campaign that offers straight-forward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud. This includes email deception and phone-based scams as well as online fraud – particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations.

Many people may already know the dos and don’ts of financial fraud and scams – that no-one should ever contact them out of the blue to ask for their full PIN or full password, or ever make them feel pressured into moving money to another account. The trouble is, in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to forget this.

The Take Five to stop fraud website is here.