Phone Scams - How to Spot Them, Stop Them & Report Them

Summary

Picture this. An email lands in your inbox - it’s from a prince in a faraway land. A nefarious individual is apparently controlling their estate (worth millions), and all they need is a little help from you to access their account and they’ll reward you with hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of pounds…. The so-called “Nigerian Prince Scam” is so well known that it is difficult to fall for, and most of the time, email servers automatically filter it as junk. However, phone scams are a different story and are regularly used by criminals to trick people out of their money using various and clever tactics. The worst thing is phone scams aren’t as easily recognisable as classic email scams and currently, phone scams account for nearly a third of all fraud. In this article, we’ll help you to identify phone scams fraud, give you ways to protect yourself and empower you to report the criminals involved. * The different types of phone scam * How you can confidently identify them * The tactics scammers use to gain your confidence * How to stop scammers calling you * Ways to report scammers * What you can do if you’re a victim of a phone scam Phone scams are a method that.

Key information

• •The different types of phone scam
• •How you can confidently identify them
• •The tactics scammers use to gain your confidence
• •How to stop scammers calling you
• •What you can do if you’re a victim of a phone scam
• •Text scams are the most common form of phone scam
• •75% of 16-34-year-olds were targeted in the timeframe above
• •60% over-75s received a suspicious call to their landline
• •82% of Ofcom’s survey respondents reported a suspicious text, recorded message or phone call
• •Take five – hang up a phone call, or stop reading a text and take 5 minutes to think whether it is as it appears
• •Verify – you can verify a message is legitimate by using a different method of contact than the one given in the communication. For example, your bank card will show a verified phone number to call the bank through. Use this number only.
• •Never – allow someone to remotely access your computer - legitimate businesses wouldn’t ask you to do this, unless you’re already a customer. And never download software requested by someone. If you have - delete it straight away.

Practical guidance

• •Source: [Phone Scams - How to Spot Them, Stop Them & Report Them](https://lawhive.co.uk/knowledge-hub/money-tax-debt/phone-scams)

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