Whilst we have mainly focused with Online Fraud in these weekly updates, criminals still make use of phone calls, both to landlines and mobiles, to defraud people out of their money.

Older persons may be particularly vulnerable as they rely on their phones for contact and companionship, so it is helpful to make elderly relatives aware of the dangers of cold callers.

These calls involve fraudsters trying to gain your personal and financial information and are often referred to as “Vishing” – an amalgamation of “Voice” and “Phishing”.

Very often the fraudster has disguised their call identity by using an apparently legitimate number so appearing genuine; this is known as “Spoofing”. If you do receive an unexpected call from a company you do not recognise, then just hang up, and do not engage with that caller.

Engaging not only tells the caller that the line is active but also one of the latest scams uses Artificial intelligence – A.I. – to clone your voice. This may be just by asking a simple question or in some case asking you to participate in a “lifestyle survey” or similar, so then your voice can be used to target friends and family, or even used as voice recognition to manipulate bank accounts

What are the common types of Phone Call Scams

Bank Scams – Criminals may call you about “fraudulent” use of your bank account or cards. Remember banks will never ask you for your PIN or tell you to hand over your bank cards to a so-called courier

Technical Support scams - They may impersonate a company such as Microsoft or BT, and tell you there is a fault on your computer or Broadband. They then probably will ask you to download remote access software to gain access to your computer, or else install Malware on your computer.

Impersonation Scams - Typically these may claim to come from your “Bank Fraud Department” telling you that your account or bank cards have been compromised and you need to transfer money to another so-called Safe Account, from where it vanishes. Similarly, calls may come from fraudsters masquerading as a Police Officer, Utility Provider, HMRC or DVLA.

Prize Draw Scams – “You have won the Lottery or a Prize Draw!” Sounds good, but is it? You may think you never entered the competition, but they will convince you that you have, then ask for your bank details so you can “receive” the prize

Financial Scams – you are called with tempting offers for investing your money in funds, schemes or perhaps in Bitcoins with the promise of huge returns. Since 2019, it has been illegal to make cold calls to sell Pension schemes, so any calls about Pension Schemes will be scams. This scheme may be extended in the future to ban any unsolicited financial cold calls.

How can you stay safe?

Never give out your financial information over the phone, and just hang up if you are unsure about the caller’s identity

Register for “TPS” - Telephone Preference Service - this prevents bona fide companies cold calling you, so you will then know that any cold call is a fake.
Many modern landline handsets have a “Call Blocking” feature so unwanted numbers can be added to the list of Blocked Callers. Separate programmable Call Blocker units are also available to protect users
Similarly, many phone service providers can offer other call blocking services such as BT Call Guardian
Scammers will often keep the phone line open after the call so even when you think you are calling a legitimate number you are still speaking to the fraudster. Wait for up to 15 minutes or make the call using a different phone line or mobile
You can also check suspicious numbers via the Call Checking website - https://who-called.co.uk/

Please feel free to share these messages with any vulnerable friends, relatives or neighbours