Well hello all! Welcome back to my blog space.
I decided to write this blog after a bit of an eventful week in work. For those who don’t know I work in a well-known high-street bank and unfortunately am on the front line of helping customers defend against those unscrupulous folks who seek to fraudulently take money off of them. This week we have successfully stopped a lot of money being lost to the criminals and unfortunately, we have also had a case where someone has lost a lot of money just before Christmas.
The only real defence against these criminals I am afraid is a having a little bit of knowledge to know when to stop and say,? Why? see below a link to one of my previous blogs
https://ukqu.co.uk/social-media-1-an-introduction/
Now in the spirit of Christmas I am going to briefly list some of the most common Scams/Frauds we see and have been seeing in the high street branches of our bank. I really hope that if nothing else it will help you all question why a little bit more when it comes to your money.
Lets start shall we…
VISHING
This scam is all about phone calls the fraudsters use in order to get you to hand over information they can use, instruct you to download software, get you to make a payment or to hand over some cash. The usual trick they use, is they call pretending to be your bank. They create panic and fear using the misleading information that you have already been a victim of fraud or it is imminent. They have also been known to pretend to be the police.
Now I know what you are asking, how do I know if it is really the bank or not?!
Well I say this to my own customers all the time, I do not care if I rang you as my customer and you did not trust me over the phone. I would rather you were difficult with me than end up trusting the wrong person on the phone and end up loosing money. It is hard, I get it. I would tell you (if you didn’t want to talk to me) to ring your bank on a number you knew once I had put the phone down, to help elevate your worries. Well here is the bad news, they know this trick. The scammers stay on the line after you have hung up and when you redial, they pretend to be your bank.
How do you get around this, well I would advise that after you have been on the phone, you hang up and walk away for a while, or you ring your bank on a different device, say a friends mobile or neighbours landline.
This is a very real scam, this is the scam that lost our customer all his money. The scammer rang the customer and pretended to be the police. They told him that they were investigating my branch for fraud. He was to go into the branch and withdraw a very large and specific amount of money. They told him not to indicate to us about any of the call but say it was for building work. Even in the face of us asking him all sorts of questions (we ask to help stop this, not because we are nosey) this customer didn’t give us any indication what was happening. He withdrew the money he took it home. The scammers came to his door (as the police) and took the money from them and checked the serial numbers.
“sorry sir, that bank is very naughty look they have given you all this counterfeit money” they took the evidence.
The very real truth of this is that, that money is gone, and the customer is not getting that back.
PHISING
This scam involves you receiving an email that is disguised to look genuine. Could look like your bank or the solicitors or someone you trust. It is designed to extract information from you or even financial details. It usually uses links that take you to a fake website requesting you log on. All the while the fraudsters are sat in the background watching.
SMISHING
Again a scam we have been seeing loads of recently in our banking branch but thankfully it does seem that our customers are questioning it a lot. You receive a text message that carries a bogus link claiming your security has been breached. They use the info that you input through that link to carry out their fraud.
APP SCAM
Now we have done a lot in the banking world to help stop this kind of fraud. However, it still happens. A customer intends to send the money to a particular person, they have some how been tricked by the fraudster into sending the money to someone else. The customer usually believes this is for a genuine purpose or person.
When you need to make a payment to someone new or a new company make sure you are 100% certain of the bank information. Ring them if you have to. Unfortunately, a lot of house purchase payments end up being subject to this fraud. The fraudster sends an email that looks like it is from the solicitor with fake bank details on. Always check, always ask why?
ROMANCE SCAM
Now this is a very hard one to stomach but unfortunately it is very real. Fraudsters are not very nice people they know to pray on the vulnerable and lonely. They do this by making you believe that you have met the perfect partner online through a dating website., apps or social media. They use fake information to build a profile and form a relationship with you. It usually involves you not meeting them face to face, but the relationship still feels very real. Using your trust and emotional triggers they start to ask for money or gain enough personal detail to steal your identity.
COURIER
Bit scary this one, the fraudsters make a call to the customer claiming to be the bank or police and again instilling the idea that you have been a victim of fraud via your cards. Instead of instructing your to destroy the card they tell you that someone will pick it and your pin up from your house via courier. Yep you’ve just handed your perfectly fine card over to the, with the pin.
CARD SKIMMING
This one is a widely known issue, but I will include it. The fraudsters install false devises on ATM’s and merchant points (chip & pin machines). These devices record and capture loads of information from the magnetic strip on unsuspecting people’s cards, when they use the machines.
CARD NOT PRESENT
This refers to when fraudulent payments are made with your card information, but the card is not physically present at the point of payment. So for example over the phone, mail order or online.
MONEY MULES
A scam that usually targets students, however, don’t be complacent, they are looking for anyone who is strapped for cash and desperate. The victim is usually aware of what is happening but allows the money to pass through their accounts as they get paid for this.
ACCOUNT TAKEOVER
So using some of the techniques above and others, fraudsters use the information that they have gained to be able to pass as the genuine customer during security measures and checks. Once they have access they then start by resetting passwords, information and security numbers. This locks out the genuine customer from their accounts and the fraudster starts to use the account as if it is theirs.
Now when someone comes into a high street branch, we have lots of procedures to ensure that we are happy that the customer is genuine. So for example we check pins and signatures (this is why you need to establish a good and consistent signature, we are not being difficult if yours changes slightly every time, its not helpful to anyone), if we are still not happy or you want to do something involving heavy security then we will request a piece of photo id. This is a driving licence or a passport, your debit cards are not forms of ID. We are not being difficult even though it feels like we are being. It is to protect your accounts.
We are nearly there, only 2 left to go….
CEO FRAUD
Criminals impersonate a senior manager of a company and send an email to an accounts department asking them to make a large payment. They are relying on the trust built within the company or the person they are impersonating to be away on holiday or not be around to verify the payment request.
INVESTMENT FRAUD
Opportunities are offered that promise huge returns with little risk but are actually worthless or don’t even exist. They usually use testimonials or fake celebrity endorsement to look legitimate. This one comes down to the old saying of ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’ question it!’
Right, we are at the end of my 12 scams of Christmas. Now this blog is not intended to scare people or make them feel silly that they would fall for the scams. Firstly, the fraudsters are very good at sounding real and persuasive. This is how they make their money; they don’t come and rob banks anymore, or very rarely. All I ask is that with a little bit of knowledge under your belt that you question WHY and hopefully we can all get through this season without loosing any much needed money.
MERRY CHRISTMAS and here is to a MUCH better 2021 for all
All previous blogs by Stacey
https://ukqu.co.uk/social-media-safety-5-terminology/
https://ukqu.co.uk/social-media-safety-4-purchasing/?doing_wp_cron=1607622167.4614191055297851562500
https://ukqu.co.uk/social-media-safety-3-pharming/
What a very helpful blog! Thank you.