Many people are falling victim to fraudulent subscriptions or “Scamscriptions” that they have unwittingly signed up to via fake emails or through tempting “Free Trial” offers of products or software, which are also often falsely endorsed by celebrities without their knowledge.
These subscriptions will seem to be too good to be true with offers of free trials/samples, but these can stop abruptly, but the subscription rolls on and then becomes very difficult to cancel in many cases.
So beware of the following:
Hidden Contract Terms in the small print, so always read these very carefully before committing with a Card payment
Billing descriptions on your bank statements may carry unclear or misleading business names, so may go by unnoticed
You may think you have a free trial period, but a charge is imposed from the start which is difficult to reconcile or dispute with the company which may also be fictitious or uncontactable
Scammers rely on you forgetting to cancel your payments, not noticing small monthly payments from an account or just simply not checking the bank statements at all.
So always;
Check the small print
Look out for negative reviews
Mark your diary with the end of the so called “free period” and cancel if appropriate especially with “free” software offers
Report any suspicious charges to your Card provider as soon as possible to give you a better chance of being able to cancel and recoup any charges
Please feel free to share these messages with any vulnerable friends, relatives or neighbours
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If you’ve fallen for fraud
Report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via actionfraud.police.uk
Fake Text messages can be forwarded to 7726 to help phone providers take early action and block numbers that generate spam on their networks. You can also report fraudulent mobile calls by texting 7726 with the word “Call” followed by the fraudster’s phone number.
Forward Fake Emails received to report@phishing.gov.uk
If you think your bank account or personal banking details have been used fraudulently, then use the short phone number - 159 - to contact the Fraud Prevention Department of most major UK banks.
