Don’t become a victim to a scam this Christmas
Christmas is supposed to be the time of peace and goodwill to all but unfortunately it also provides golden opportunities for scammers and fraudsters.
We’ve put together some advice on the latest scams so you can avoid being duped by scammers looking to make money. This will help you to recognise a scam, protect yourself and also what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming a victim.
Common scams Fraudsters often adopt a fake identity to commit crimes. They might:
- Pretend to work for a well-known company or charity to persuade you to buy goods that are not for sale, don’t exist or are worthless .
- Provide a service, often of poor quality (such as building work or resurfacing driveways) but charge you many times the price they quoted, often using threats to get payment.
- Trick you into giving them money, even large amounts, possibly over a long period of time, with the promise of making you more money – for example, bogus lottery wins or inheritance scams where they might demand money from you in order to receive your fictitious prize or inheritance .
- Persuade you to invest your pension in fake pension plans that have little value, are not suited to your long-term needs or are worthless.
Identify theft
Identity theft is when someone commits fraud by using your personal details to carry out a crime.
This can include deceiving others to open bank accounts, or applying for loans or purchasing goods and services using your bank details and money. It can also extend to ‘borrowing’ your identity to hide debts or poor credit ratings and, in extreme cases, creating fake identity documents. This crime can be extremely damaging, as not only do you feel powerless to stop the crimes being committed, you may not even be aware that it’s happening until it is too late.
To prevent you from becoming a victim to a scam always remember to:
- Avoid any unexpected contact, any phone calls, letters, emails or people knocking on your door should be ignored
- Never give out your personal information. This can be used to steal your identity and access your accounts.
- Make sure all your accounts have a strong password.
- Do not use the same password for multiple accounts and change them regularly.
- Do not make advanced payments until you are sure the company you are dealing with is legitimate.
- Never make a bank transfer payment to individuals in advance of receiving goods or a service as this offers no protection to you as a buyer.
- If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.