Scams- Whether it's an email, text or phone call, we have all been a victim to one at some point in our lives. Just like technology however, scammers are evolving at a steady and sophisticated pace. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to spot the subtle differences in a fake communication. In a bid to help our customers and the general public as a whole, we have comprised some helpful tips to make sure you stay one savvy step ahead of those who wish to take advantage of naivety. Scam Calls: These are usually the easiest to spot. The majority of the time the scammer won't sound native to your country- while this is not uncommon due to a lot of businesses having overseas call centres, it should at least put you on heightened alert. The scammer is unlikely to have that much information about you available to them- usually just your name and telephone number. In order for them to confirm who they are, ask what registered address or other information.
n the caller should have about you. If they are unable to provide that information, then they likely aren't from your legitimate bank/Amazon/Microsoft etc.
Google the business they are calling from. Often scammers will pick business names that either sound similar to a legitimate company, or just don't exist at all. Often these can be things like Microsoft Service Direct, or Apple Support Enterprises etc. Quickly Googling "Scam Call *enter callers claimed business name*" can sometimes give you a quick overview of other people who have experienced similar calls.
Never give passwords. Passwords are the gold vein most scammers are after. It's surprising, even to scam avoiding veterans, how professional and legitimate a call can sound, even to the point where they ask you to confirm all your details. Even legitimate calls from Banks will only ask you for two or three digits of your password. While this is still a risk if a scammer got hold of those two or three digits, it would not be enough by itself for them to gain access to your bank. If the caller ever asks for a password in full, there's a 98% chance its a scam.
Scam Emails:
These can sometimes be a bit trickier to spot than the scam calls. Sometimes they can be very professionally made to look like they came from your bank, Amazon, food retailer or paypal etc. The big risk to these isn't necessarily the email itself, but the links within them that cause damage by means of Virus and Malware downloads.
Look for your name. Again, many scammers have limited information on you to go with. At this stage its likely just your email and, at best, a first name. If you cannot locate your actual name anywhere on the email, and just see mentions of "Dear Customer", its likely a scam email.
Compare to a legitimate email. If you have had similar emails in the past, for instance an Amazon Order Confirmation, then reference the suspicious email next to the legitimate one and see if they match up. If they do not look the same in their layout, font, structure and even the small print at the bottom, then its likely a scam email.
Best of all- Check the email address is was sent from. The biggest and likely easiest method to spot a scam email comes from the email address it was sent from. Now, often you might see a fake or "Spoofed" email address. This is when an email like 8q071fsad@gmail.com (an obviously suspicious address) may look like Support@Microsoft.com or something similar. Depending on how you are reading the email and what device you are on, there are different ways to see the actual email address. Most often, you simply click or press on the email address (or whatever is in the "From" field of the email) and it will then show you it in full. Unless its from a legitimate looking address (service@paypal.co.uk, ebay@ebay.com, order-update@amazon.co.uk etc) and not a random bunch of numbers and letters, its probably a scam email.
Scam Texts:
These are usually very easy to spot. Unlike with emails, you cannot hide a suspicious website link behind a legitimate looking link or picture in a text. It is literally just text, and everything is visable.
Look at the link carefully. Almost all scam texts will include a link, this is the only way they can either infect your device, or gain access to an account you use. These links may sometimes look similar to a safe website, but will have some glaring differences. For instance a link like www.HMRCgoveme.com may look safe at a glance if the text mentioned tax refunds etc, but no government website ends with .com. Its always .gov for this exact security reason. Other suspitious ones might look like uk-application-form.com. Again, there is no reference to the business here (Amazon.co.uk, ebay.co.uk, dpd.com etc). Just UK Application Form- which could mean anything.
With all of the above, there is one tried and tested method that always works- Contact them instead. If you for example have an email that looks like its from Amazon about an order, just log into your Amazon account normally (without clicking any links in the email/text) and check that way, or a text from DPD with a delivery reference, just log into DPD.co.uk and enter the reference to see if its real.
It all boils down to just applying a bit of logic when mentally filtering your incoming communications. As long as you don't click links or open attachments- a scam email or text is relatively harmless.