Fraud Prevention Advice

There are many types of fraud, but to protect you and others, City of London Police offers you the following advice; 

• If you’ve been a victim of fraud, you may be contacted by someone pretending to be from an organisation such as the police, trading standards, a court, a bank, an insurer or a company telling you they can get your money back for you, often if you pay them upfront to do it. None of these organisations will ever ask for money to prosecute someone, or to release your money back to you. This is known as a Recovery Fraud, and you should not reply to messages like this. Please report any approach like this to the police via the National Fraud Reporting Centre.

• Don’t give any personal information (your name, address, bank details, email or phone number) to anyone before fully knowing who they are. Always question any calls, texts, or emails requesting your personal information. Stop, Think Fraud.
• Only contact companies directly using known email or phone numbers, not ones given to you in an email, text message, or provided in a call. Visit a company's website directly, not from a link you have been sent. For example, your bank’s phone number will be on the back of your bank card.
• If you have been a victim of fraud then please report it to us, but also alert your bank. They can then watch for fraudulent activity on your accounts.
• If fraudsters may have found out your passwords then it is crucial that you change them straight away. Choose strong passwords as fraudsters know to try things like 'password1' or 'admin' or '123456'. The National Cyber Security Centre recommend choosing three random words, put together, to make a password, but do not use the same password on any other website or account, as once a fraudster has a password for one site, they may very well try using it on others.
• The original fraudster may contact you saying that 'this is all a misunderstanding', 'the police are targeting me but your investment is safe', or for romance fraud they might say, 'you can't trust the police or your family, you can trust me'. This is a common tactic used to get more money from people. You must not respond, please report it to the police.
• For people who go online to meet people for friendship, or to look for a romantic partner, always take measures to find out if the person they are talking with is genuine. Use reverse image searches through your search engine, to check whether the pictures are used or stolen from elsewhere. You can learn how to do this quite easily by searching online. No real friend or partner will mind when you are taking steps to protect yourself.
• Stop and question when a person starts asking you for money, normally when you have never met them, and especially when an emergency is the reason why they need the money right now. This is commonly linked to fraud, and any genuine person would never pressure you for money, and you are never the only person they can turn to.
• We have seen an increase in people receiving messages, where fraudsters have pretended to be a friend or family member, saying they are in trouble and urgently need money sending to them. Stop, and Think Fraud why is that person you know not calling you, or video calling you? You can easily find in the media, stories of ‘deep fakes’ where pictures and voices can also be replicated. Ask them a question that only they would know the answer to. Have a conversation now with loved ones about this very situation, maybe you could set up a codeword together. This conversation will make them conscious of fraud too, so you are helping to protect them.
• Consider regularly getting a copy of your credit file and bank statement and check for entries you do not recognise. You normally do not need to pay for these, so please watch out for companies online saying you do.
• Be extremely suspicious of mail, text messages, phone calls, websites, or emails offering you great deals or investments. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Although, some frauds seem relatively normal so don’t rely on fraud to be an outrageous offer. Stop, Think Fraud. Listen to your instincts and, most importantly take your time. Genuine banks and businesses, will not pressure you into handing over your money. No one should.

Finally, we receive over three hundred thousand reports of fraud a year. In 2023 the Crime Survey of England and Wales estimated there 3.2 million fraud crimes a year. We work very hard to bring this number down, but there are many victims of fraud, you are not alone. People often feel like they have done something foolish, and they are to blame, but they are not, and you are not. These are crimes committed by criminals who manipulate and persuade people, and they are to blame. If we want to stop them, and to protect others, we need all fraud to be reported.

By using the advice given to you above, you can make some small changes that mean you have a better chance to spot fraud, and feel confident in reporting fraud to the police. Also, you now have the ability to tell your friends, family, and those important people around you to take steps to protect themselves from fraud.