This month’s speaker was Adrian Taylor who talked to members about ‘Scams and How to Avoid Them’. Fifteen years ago, he attended a course about scams and endeavoured to pass on the information but found that few people were interested. Nowadays, however, it is a very different story.
Adrian began with disturbing statistics: £3,000,000 a day was scammed in 2023, fraud has risen 16%, scams are 40% of all UK crime, 2% of police time is taken up with scams, only 20% of scams are reported and 0.4% of scammers are prosecuted. Age UK state that 1 in 5 over 50s don’t pick up the phone, 1 in 10 don’t answer the door and 4 over 50s are scammed daily.
Scams, Adrian indicated, were usually either ‘Single Hit’ or ‘The Spell’. An example of a ‘single hit’ is the stealing of post – one man had 40 credit cards taken out in his name. ‘The spell’ happens when someone is encouraged to buy, for example, cryptocurrency, told that it is doing well and encouraged to ‘invest’ more money. One lady lost £45,000 this way. Apparently, most people make 3 payments before they realise that they have been scammed.
Is internet banking safe? Not, Adrian declared, if your mobile phone is stolen. £30,000,000 was stolen via mobile apps in one year. Adrian’s suggestions for keeping information safe included adding a pin to the SIM, having 2 factor authorisation, creating strong passwords, disabling preview messages and registering with Google or Apple to track/find the phone.
If you are unsure if it really is your bank/the police/HMRC calling you, always say that you will ring them back BUT, do not call them back on your phone, use a different one or ask a relative or friend to phone for you and never use a number that the caller gives you. Alternatively, you can call 159 and they will put you through to your own bank.
Adrian talked about many different kinds of scams, for example notice of Judicial prosecution, final notices for payment, people wanting to ‘help’ you to get money back from cancelled flights, NHS notification about treatment, wanting to help you to erase the ‘virus on your computer’, romance scams, AI scams involving celebrities, hotel and restaurant hackers - ‘Spear Phishing’, investment scams, land banking, delivery scams, ‘free gift’ scams, ‘Meta’ scams and identity fraud.
Clues that you are being scammed include: urgency, it’s too good to be true, it comes unexpectedly, personal details are needed, it sounds vague, clumsy grammar or spelling and you are asked to keep it to yourself.
What can you do? Put the phone down, call to check using a different phone, do not give out passwords or account numbers, do not click on links, use secure passwords, ensure you have up to date anti-virus and report all scams. Adrian’s message in a nutshell? TRUST NO-ONE!
This was an extremely useful and informative presentation which helped members to take steps in ensuring that they never become scam victims.
The next meeting will take place at 2pm on 16th April 2025 at Owley Wood Recreation Club, Weaverham, when Mark Nyman will tell us how to win at ‘Scrabble’!