Take Five: Top Tips To Avoid Scams

Fraud poses a major threat to the UK. It’s a crime that the financial services sector is committed to tackling, but it’s also one that requires the combined efforts of every sector, both public and private, to overcome.

Take Five is a national campaign that offers straight-forward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud. This includes email deception and phone-based scams as well as online fraud – particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations such as HMRC or banks.

Many people may already know the dos and don’ts of financial fraud and scams – that no-one will ever contact them out of the blue to ask for their PIN or full password etc., or ever make them feel pressured into moving money to another account. The trouble is, in the heat of the moment, it can be easy to forget this.

After all, trusting people on their word is something everyone tends to do instinctively. If someone says they’re from your bank or another organisation, why wouldn’t you believe them? Take Five is a campaign in partnership with a number of partners in the UK finance industry, law enforcement, telecom providers and commercial companies. It urges you to stop and consider whether the situation is genuine – to stop and think for just five minutes if what you’re being told really makes sense.

Criminals are experts at impersonating people, organisations and the police. They could spend hours researching you for their scams in the hope that you’ll let your guard down for just a moment. Remember these points:

TAKE FIVE: Stop and take five minutes to think before parting with your money or personal information. It could help keep you safe.

CHALLENGE: It’s okay to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or alarm you with time limits.

PROTECT: Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve fallen for a scam, and report it to Action Fraud.

Visit the Take Five website to read about the different types of scams you might encounter, and always make vulnerable or elderly friends and relatives aware of likely scams.