{"id":9165,"date":"2022-01-08T15:01:12","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T15:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.herefordshirecab.org.uk\/?page_id=565"},"modified":"2022-01-08T15:01:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-08T15:01:12","slug":"how-to-protect-yourself-against-scams","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/how-to-protect-yourself-against-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"How to protect yourself against scams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p id=\"e13f\">Stop, Challenge, Protect<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/miro.medium.com\/max\/1400\/1%2AaMfsnMGskJ-p8XjO4XSYyg.jpeg?ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"02b1\">In 2020, criminals stole \u00a31.2 billion from the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"8cfc\">Fraud and scams can have a devastating impact on their victims both financially and emotionally. And as fraudsters use more and more sophisticated techniques to scam you they can be harder to identify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"0fb3\">We\u2019ve teamed up with\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/takefive-stopfraud.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Take Five to Stop Fraud<\/a>\u00a0to help you identify and protect yourself from scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Citizens Advice and Take Five to Stop Scams\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FByR1WpnCpE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2aae\"><strong>What should I look out for?<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"22ab\">Criminals are experts at impersonating people, organisations and the police. Their methods are sophisticated and designed to convince you to part with your personal and financial details. They can pretend to be anyone, including the police, your bank, a delivery company, communication service provider or a government department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"2501\">In general, there are two main types of scam \u2014 authorised push payment and unauthorised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"7f85\">An authorised push payment scam is where you\u2019re tricked into sending money directly from your bank account to an account controlled by a fraudster. This could be when someone you\u2019re talking to on an online dating site asks you to send them money or when you\u2019re buying something online and the seller asks you to pay by bank transfer instead of through the site\u2019s secure payment methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"2e09\">This type of scam is different to an unauthorised scam, where money is taken from your account without you knowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"4341\">These scams often begin with a phone call, text or email out of the blue. Criminals can use a tactic called \u2018spoofing\u2019 to make their call or text appear genuine by cloning the number or sender ID which is displayed on your phone. In some cases criminals even trick you by sending couriers to collect your cards, PINs or valuable items in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"b2e5\"><strong>How can I protect myself?<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"3930\">If you get a request for money or personal details before you do anything you should&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/takefive-stopfraud.org.uk\/advice\/general-advice\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stop, Challenge, Protect<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"97a8\"><strong>Stop<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 Taking a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"527a\"><strong>Challenge<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 Could it be fake? It\u2019s ok to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"9a80\"><strong>Protect<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 Contact your bank immediately if you think you\u2019ve fallen for a scam and report it to Action Fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"77d1\">If you do fall for an online scam,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizensadvice.org.uk\/consumer\/scams\/get-help-with-online-scams\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">our #ScamsAction service<\/a>&nbsp;is here to help. We provide free, impartial and confidential one-to-one support on scams. We can help you report the scam and help you understand the next steps. If you\u2019ve lost a significant amount of money or are struggling as a result of being scammed we can also help direct you to other services such as our debt service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"5902\">The Citizens Advice #ScamsAction service is here to help. You can&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizensadvice.org.uk\/consumer\/scams\/get-help-with-online-scams\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">contact us<\/a>&nbsp;over the phone, online or use our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizensadvice.org.uk\/consumer\/scams\/check-if-something-might-be-a-scam\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">online scams helper tool<\/a>&nbsp;to check if something is a scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"edec\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/takefive-stopfraud.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Take Five to Stop Fraud<\/a>\u00a0is a national campaign that offers\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/takefive-stopfraud.org.uk\/advice\/general-advice\/\" target=\"_blank\">straight-forward and impartial advice<\/a>\u00a0to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud. This includes email deception and phone-based scams as well as online fraud \u2014 particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Article by <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@emily.nix?source=post_page-----5403c2e10a77-----------------------------------\">Emily Nix<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wearecitizensadvice.org.uk\/how-to-protect-yourself-against-scams-5403c2e10a77\">https:\/\/wearecitizensadvice.org.uk\/how-to-protect-yourself-against-scams-5403c2e10a77<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stop, Challenge, Protect In 2020, criminals stole \u00a31.2 billion from the public. Fraud and scams can have a devastating impact on their victims both financially and emotionally. And as fraudsters use more and more sophisticated techniques to scam you they can be harder to identify. We\u2019ve teamed up with\u00a0Take Five to Stop Fraud\u00a0to help you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9165","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizensadviceworcester.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}