Beware the fraudsters who will steal your identity and money
FRAUD IS the most common crime today, amounting to a staggering £10bn annually. Thieves derive information in many ways but particularly from social media.
In a survey conducted by YouGov, commissioned by the credit reference agency Equifax, almost 20 per cent of those aged 18-24 years were unaware that they could be exposed to identity theft by revealing personal information online, typically full names, addresses and mobile telephone numbers.
Stealing property deposits is on the increase. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau says it rose by 85 per cent in 2016.
One of the latest scams is where criminals pretend to be solicitors. They manage to get into legal emails and impersonate the lawyers, stealing £11m last year, according to the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority. One of the tricks is to email those about to purchase a property and request a deposit is paid but not to the conveyancer’s account.
To counter this, no one should rely on bank details sent by email but check by telephone or in paper correspondence on the veracity of the information. If paying online, one idea is to send a single pound to the account and to then check it has been received correctly before forwarding the balance.
Emails that appear to come from a bank or building society that ask for money to be transferred to another account are bogus. If it gives a telephone number to contact, distrust it and instead use the one on the reverse of your bank debit card. Claims that an account has been established to safeguard your savings are similarly false as banks work on account numbers and sort codes, not names.
Pension scams are notorious with Action Fraud calculating that victims are losing £15,000 on average which is based on almost 3,000 cases since spring 2014 when the Chancellor announced the new pension freedoms. ‘Cold calling’, which means unsolicited enquiries, is at the heart of such losses. Whilst the practice was outlawed years ago for mortgages, only this autumn is legislation to be introduced to ban it for pensions.
The technique used is to offer a complimentary pension review. Vulnerable people are then persuaded to place their money in fraudulent schemes which will pay a far higher rate of interest. There are many unregulated but exciting sounding areas from coins and jewellery to stamps and wine. It can result in the loss of the entire savings and make individuals dependent on a state pension for their retirement.
A scheme may be HMRC registered, meaning that the pension provider has to honour a holder’s request to transfer money. Yet such registration does not currently signify that such a scheme is not a scam to place funds into quite unsuitable areas, which might be South American rain forests or palm trees in the Caribbean.
One helpful agency to give advice is Pension Wise, which was established by the Government. It is designed to help those over 50 with a personal or workplace pension. It will neither cold call nor make contact unless it has already been approached.
Data collected by an organisation must be kept secure by law. The Information Commissioner can fine for breaches which will increase under the EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation. This allows for fines of at least two per cent of a company’s global revenue. Such a threat will make firms take cybersecurity far more seriously.
Be particularly cautious of any claim to offer returns far higher than the stock market has shown and avoid offers to give ‘guarantees’. The exception to the latter would be friendly societies and insurance companies which ring fence part of an investment. Both such groups are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority which will confirm a firm’s authorisation to trade.
Thieves read obituary notices with precision. Advise anyone who has lost a relative to be on their guard from approaches to assist with financial planning. One of the tricks employed is to suggest purchasing an overseas property, perhaps one at an approved planning stage. Frequently this is quite fictional but, if genuine, the intermediary could skim off most or all of the funds.
No compensation is liable by a bank if the customer either transfers funds or gives thieves access to their account using their passwords. Lloyds Bank, along with its subsidiaries Bank of Scotland and Halifax, contacts customers who it has identified as at risk when it spots suspicious transfer instructions.
One fraud is to send a text message that says your debit card has been used and names the retailer, date, time and amount, requesting a call if the transaction is incorrect. The innocent person who responds to the number then finds they are speaking directly to the thief but think it is a bank security official. In such circumstances, it is easy to succumb to revealing private banking access codes.
Instead of using a number given by a possible fraudster, call back on a published telephone line. If the potential thief has called, they often stay on the line and therefore use an alternative method to respond.
Banks are testing voicerecognition software to reduce fraud. However, it is at an early stage of development. When taking money out of a cash machine, take care who is close by, shield the pad when entering your PIN and, after taking the card and notes, always go over all numbers so that no warm trace is left of your selections. South Africa has introduced credit and debit cards with builtin fingerprint scanners which could soon replace chip and PIN plastic.
A trick to obtain key passwords is for a thief to pose as an employee of a utility company. They claim to have a new discounted scheme but before giving details need to check on your method of payment. They will request two characters or numbers from your password, pretend they have not heard them and ask for another two. This should be sufficient to impersonate you and steal from the associated bank or building society account.
Purchasing tickets online is a noted area where security is not tight. Over £17m has been stolen this way in the last three years, according to the City of London Police which monitors the subject. Fraudsters pretend to sell tickets which they do not hold. Some even go to the trouble of issuing fake ones to delay being found until the date of the event booked.
When purchasing online, there are fraudulent traders who copy genuine sites. Look for either “.net” or “.org” after a domain name as a likely fraud. Avoid sites which only allow payment by bank transfer instead of by using a credit or debit card. One trick is for the thief to have some item delivered – even though it may not be in any way correct – and thereby make the complaint a civil one rather than a criminal one.