Scams awareness

Scams are ways to trick you out of your money. Every year more than three million people in the UK lose money to scams, losing hundreds and even thousands of pounds.

You can get a scam message by post, phone call, text message or email, or even by a 'scammer' turning up at your home.

If you have been targeted by a scam, or know someone who has, report it through Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.

If debit cards, online banking or cheques are involved in the scam, contact your bank or credit card company. 

Help working out a scam

A scam could be:

• a call, letter, email or text that you get without any warning or someone you haven't had contact from before
• a lottery or competition that you have you’ve not heard of or that you didn't enter or buy a ticket for
• someone asking you to send money to them
• someone saying you have to reply or do somethig quickly - this is so you don’t have time to think about it or talk to family and friends before you decide
• someone needing something from you and telling you to keep it a secret.

What a scammer may do

• Contact you suddenly without any contact from them before.
• Make promises that sound too good to be true.
• Ask you to pay for something before you've got what you're paying for - for example, they may ask you to pay a fee before you can claim a prize.
• Ask you to make a quick decision by saying things like ‘if you don’t act now you’ll miss out’. This doesn’t give you time to think or talk to someone else about it.
• Be very friendly with you and act as if they know you when they don't.
• Tell you an offer has to be kept secret.
• Ask for your bank account details. Never give your bank details to anyone you don't know or can't check who they are, especially people you meet online.
• Give a mobile number or PO box number as the contact for their company - these are easy to close and difficult for police to track and find. It may be a sign that the company doesn’t exist or isn't real. Check the company's details with Companies House or look on the internet for more details about them.

If you think something might be a scam, don’t reply - then throw it away, delete it or hang up and get further advice.

Tips on avoiding scams

• Register with the Mailing Preference Service to cut down on unwanted direct mail that is addressed to you: phone 020 7291 3310.
• Royal Mail also has an opt out scheme through which you can choose not to have materials put through the door.
• Register with the Telephone Preference Service to cut down on unwanted phone calls, texts and SMS messages.
• Forward spam texts to your mobile provider – 7726 for Everything Everywhere (O2 & Orange), 37726 for 3, 87726 for Vodafone.