How to protect yourself from fraud: six easy ways to stay safe Fraud operations

Take a few moments

There are many different methods that fraudsters will use to try to deceive people to share their financial or personal information. However, what they often share is that they will try to make you act quickly.

For example, the deception may contact the communications that it is from your bank fraud team and says that your account has been at risk and needs to transfer your money urgently to a “safe” account, which actually belongs to the fraud fraud.

According to one web security company, One of the most used words In the “urgent” remote emails.

The financing of the UK Bank Trade Authority is managed Take fiveWho advises consumers to “spend a moment to stop and think” before delivering any money or personal details. She says that “criminals alone will try to rush or panic … Ask yourself – can it be fake? Ask someone you trust in the second opinion.”

Beware online

Barclays recently revealed that through all the different types of fraud that its customers reported, 75 % began on social media and technology platforms.

“Most of the online shopping fraud reports should be particularly careful. If the seller provides expensive goods at cut prices or contains unavailable elements, it is a major red sign,” says LLOYDS Bank.

There was also an increase in recent years in the so -called “HI Mum”, as fraudsters appear as lovers in services such as WhatsApp. Someone may contact a person who pretends to be a family member and says he needs money quickly to pay an invoice because they were closed from banking services online after obtaining a new phone.

Again, try not to allow the scammers to panic. Check if the message is real by spending time to contact a family member using the number you have or via another channel. You can also test the person on the other end of the message by asking a question that the person they claim will only know how to answer.

Look closely

The e -mail may seem authentic at first glance, but when accurate inspection, the email address is slightly different from the person’s address or legitimate company. Perhaps a single message, number or code has been changed.

An email or text of the deception may also include spelling errors or bad rules, because the English is not often its first language.

Also be careful to click on a link or attachment in an email or text until you are completely sure that it is legitimate. It may take you to a fake website or have harmful programs designed to steal your personal information.

Sniff

A lot of fraud begins with the landline or your mobile phone. It may be who pretends to be from the bank you are dealing with or an official body, or someone who tries to make you buy or invest in something.

If you do not expect a call and cannot be 100 % certain of what you are talking to, immediately miss and search for the official phone number to restore the company or the institution if you want to talk to them.

It warns the charitable era in the United Kingdom as well: “Be aware that the fraudsters can keep your phone line open even after stopping. .

Many phone devices allow you to see the number of the person calling before the answer, but the disappointing can hide their identity by simulating an official phone number. This is known as “deception numbers”, and it can also be used to create a fake message that appears in a series of original text messages from a company or institution.

However, there was some good news last week: The communications organizer says that the phone saving should now prevent all calls from abroad, which falsely showcases a landline number in the United Kingdom.

Screen and blocks

When it comes to ground lines, the group of consumers? He has I collected the list of services You can use them to prohibit numbers that may be contents or calls for a nuisance.

One is BT Protecting the protectionWhich is automatically transformed, the company believes it is a problem with unwanted voicing boxes for customers. It also allows you to collect a personal list of numbers you want to block, and you can choose to send all calls of three types of numbers – international, withholding them and not recognized – to your unwanted voice email.

Coordination protection is included with home phones beams without any additional cost, and which of them? It is believed to be much better than some BT services, such as choosing to reject and reject the unknown call, which costs 6.86 pounds and 8.09 pounds per month in a row.

Customers of the sky can use Sky Talk ShieldService for calling calls and banning them, which is free for Sky Broadband customers and Sky Talk. Talktalk has a similar service called Callsafe This is also free.

For mobile phones, many Android devices have a caller identifier, random mail calls and text messages. Make sure to run it in your phone settings and for any correspondence applications you use, and not to answer or call again or respond to unknown numbers. The legitimate callers will leave an audio mail.

On iPhone, run “The silence of the callers is unknown” in your phone settings To prevent people who are not saved in your contacts from your ring, and operation “The liquidation of unknown messengers” in messages settings To remove texts from people you do not know in a separate folder and stop the links in their messages from work.

Also think about registering for Phone preference serviceThe “only official in the United Kingdom” does not relate to the registration of ground lines and mobile phone numbers, “although some are arguing with it Its limits.

Protect your computer

Be sure to properly protect the desktop or laptop.

“In general, it is about keeping things up to update and guarantee any device you use still gets software and safety updates,” says Samuel Gibbs, the Guardian Consumer Editor. “As long as you keep a modern modern device, do not install things from outside different application stores, keep up with your browser and avoid dribbling sites, it will be difficult to penetrate.”

For Windows 11 computers, keep your program so far by using Windows Update and visiting Microsoft Store to get the latest application versions. Also use the update service in browsers like Chrome. Check the built -in Windows Security It is run for protection against viruses. To open the app, look for it in the Start menu.

For Apple devices, keep MacOS update using the program update and applications store for your applications. Mcus has a different Integrated security systems That works in the background.

In all cases, make sure you have strong passwords, and do not use the same cases in more than one account.

Authentication adds an additional layer of safety. You must run it for every service you provide.