23rd Jun 2015
Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) has launched its annual national awareness week, with a focus on phone scams in partnership with Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK), as criminals increasingly focus on scams that avoid face-to-face contact. The campaign will involve 173,000 volunteers will be helping to warn those in their community of the dangers of phone…
5th May 2015
Renters are the people most likely to have their identity stolen, according to a report by Experian. Shared hallways and the general ease at which rental properties can be accessed mean that identity fraudsters are able to get their hands on personal information easily – imagine how much they could find out about you…
5th Feb 2015
Yesterday morning I woke up to a text – a very strange text indeed! It was a message from Alfie (I’ve never heard of him) from SexyChat (something else I’ve never heard of…honest!) I was told if I wanted to read the SMS I should reply to the number given, or I could text back STOP…
17th Dec 2014
Students should be especially alert over the festive period according to the Student Loans Company (SLC). Students should be on the lookout for email phishing scams, as fraudsters will be targeting them in time for their second student finance payout in January. For those not in the know, phishing scams work by fraudsters…
25th Oct 2014
If you run a small businesses be warned – you’re a major target for fraudsters trying to defraud you out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Common fraud in business What do the scams involve? Real life examples Financial Fraud Action UK’s (FFA UK) intelligence bureau has reported an upsurge of two scams in particular invoice fraud,…
20th Oct 2013
I have just finished reading The Con Men: A History of Financial Fraud and the Lessons you can Learn by Leo Gough. Before reading, I didn’t have much knowledge of scams and fraud within the financial sector and I also had no idea how long some of the cons ran on for, or how much…
15th Jul 2013
I’ve heard of yet another nasty fraud being perpetrated on Facebook. If you’re on it, be very careful of this one – it’s extremely sneaky. A friend of my neighbour’s has a friend on Facebook who has a fairly complicated Iranian name. A short while ago she got a friend request from this person and…
24th Oct 2012
We thought we would warn you of a new card reader scam we have recently heard about. The scam works like this… A courier phones to say that he is checking that you are in as he has a parcel to deliver. On arrival he gets you to sign his machine to acknowledge a receipt. …
12th Oct 2012
A nasty couple of scam websites have just been closed down in New York for tricking people into sending money abroad as part of a mystery shopping scam. Victims were sent bogus cheques for $2,000 and instructed to cash them and keep $300 as payment. Then they were told to wire the remaining $1,700 overseas…
14th Jul 2012
I’ve just heard of a new Metropolitan and Strathclyde police scam, that is taking people’s money from them. Apparently messages are sent through “pop-up” windows telling computer users their machine has been locked by the police because they have allegedly been viewing adult content online. The victim is instructed to call a telephone number and…
10th May 2012
The FSA (Financial Services Authority) have produced this video on how you can protect yourself from get-rich-quick schemes such as Ponzi and pyramid schemes. This is the second video from the FSA on how to recognise and avoid the most popular scams
25th Jan 2012
Car insurance brokers, Aston Midshires, are under investigation by the police, Trading Standards and the FSA after pretending to organise well-priced car insurance for young people. If you, or someone in your family, have organised insurance through this company you should check NOW to see if you are actually insured. It’s highly likely that you’re…
