Have you been the victim of identity fraud?
Since lockdown, identity fraud has exploded with the knowledge that more people are at home waiting for deliveries and using the Internet a lot more.
Common Targets for Attackers:
- Amazon Prime – callers asking about your prime membership / overpayment / cancellation.
- PC World Support – callers pretending to be from PC World IT support asking for passwords.
- Delivery companies – emails / calls / texts from legitimate looking delivery companies asking for payment details.
- Bank/Building Societies – calls suggesting that you are a victim of fraud.
- HMRC / National Insurance – automated voices suggesting you owe money to the government.
Things to Avoid
- Never give anyone your password as a whole, legitimate companies may ask you for a few characters from your password but not the whole thing.
- Do not install any remote control software on your computer/laptop/tablet/phone (e.g. TeamViewer, RemotePC, LogMeIn, etc)
- Avoid giving your 16 digit bank card number over the phone to someone that has rung you out of the blue.
Best Practices
- If you are not sure about the reliability of the call, take their name and any reference numbers, hang up, search the companies number and call them back yourself using the name/reference number as a starting point.
- Use a credit card online rather than bank/debit card – Credit card companies have better insurance and are covered for fraud. You are much more likely to get any lost money recovered from a credit card transaction.
- Don’t be afraid to hang up
- For emails and texts – make sure you check the sender information and see if they match up with the company they say they are from.
- Avoid clicking any links in emails or texts that don’t look to be legitimate.
Next Steps
If you think you may have been a target or are already a victim of identity theft or had money taken from your account without your consent then get in touch or call us directly on 078 8885 3490 for advice and support to get the money back.
