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Internet Safety: How to avoid becoming a victim of a scam

According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, £1.2bn was lost by everyday people in 2021 - with young people aged 16-24 accounting for 50% of victims. To help keep you stay safe online, we have put together some essential tips.

Beds SU

By Beds SU

Wednesday, 10 August 2022

Scamming Online

You may have previously experienced or heard, of scams taking place in which you receive an email that looks genuine, with an important message from your bank, for example, telling you that you need to urgently need sign into your account, as there has been unauthorised activity. When you sign into this fake bank website, your details are compromised, and you could become a victim of identity fraud. Luckily, these cases are becoming less common because email providers find the emails before they even appear to you.

Recently, online scams have taken a new direction – text messages. Commonly, criminals will prey on your kind nature of believing a text message sent to you. A text message will again, have an urgency to it and require you to open a link – but the contact’s name will look completely the same. A common message states you have been in contact with someone who had COVID-19 and require testing– with a fake-looking NHS website telling you to need to buy the test from them. The contact’s name itself states “NHS,” and people can fall for this. This is known as “spoofing.”

How do scams work?

It is important to know that scams require two main elements to work – firstly, there needs to be urgency in the call to action. This is so you won’t think too about the message and suspect something is untoward about where the message has originated from. Secondly, scams require the information to look somewhat genuine. For example, the contact’s name (and the link) needs to look like the real site.

Five tips to help you stay safe online

  • Always look at the link before clicking on it.
As an example, https://www.nhs.uk/ is the real NHS website. A fraudster may use https://www.nhs-medical-COVID-19.uk/ to make it seem as if this is the NHS website. If you’re ever in doubt, find the real site using a reputable search engine (such as Google).

  • Check for similar online scams online.
Sometimes, if you Google the wording of the text message, there will be “reviews” of the scam online, in which people will tell you to avoid the number or message link.

  • Ring the company or service in question.

If you cannot find anything online, find their official number online and ask them – make sure you do not use any numbers provided to you within the email or text message.

• Block the number or delete the message.

If you think it is a scam, delete the message and block the number. If it is a real company or urgent message, you will receive a phone call from a genuine number.

•Activate your phone’s built-in scam-blocking settings.

Most phones include a “scam recognising” system which will warn you if the number is known for being fraudulent.

If you need further advice and tips, check out the National Cyber Security Centre here:If you need further advice and tips, check out the National Cyber Security Centre here:

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams