To help you stay alert and protect yourself from being scammed, we’ve put together these helpful tips:
Protect your personal information
- Keep your passwords and PIN numbers in a safe place and don’t share them with anyone
- Don’t share your personal information on social media sites
- Never let anyone have remote access to your computer, even if they claim to be calling from a well-known company, such as a bank or network provider
- Don’t open suspicious texts, pop-up windows or click on links or attachments in emails. Delete them.
- Never send money or give credit card details, online account details or copies of personal documents to anyone you don’t know or trust.
Ensure messages from businesses and friends are legitimate
- Check for security devices on website and social pages, such as padlocks and verification ticks/marks.
- Scammers will use anything available to them – even social media accounts. If you get a message or email from a friend and it seems unusual or out of character, contact your friend directly and check that the message came from them.
- Be cautious about answering a message or email that you didn’t ask for, whether it’s from a person or a business. Scammers operate across all channels including the phone, mail, email, in person and social media.
- Be wary of unusual payment requests. Scammers will often ask you to use an unusual payment method e.g. MoneyGram
In all your dealings, be vigilant and always consider the possibility that it may be a scam.