Fraud and scams

Have you been affected by, or do you want to know more about, fraud and scams?

Fraud is when someone uses deception, lies and deceit to gain a dishonest advantage over you in order to steal property, belongings or money.

It can be committed against individuals or businesses and there are many types. The scale can vary from someone trying to scam you out of money by collecting for a fake charity to major business fraud involving millions of pounds.

You might hear fraud described as a scam, con, swindle, extortion, sham, double-cross, hoax, cheat, ploy, ruse, hoodwink or confidence trick.

Fraudulent people will often:

use fake names and identification badges, perhaps pretending to be an official
trick you into buying goods or services that aren’t for sale or don’t exist
provide a service that’s of low quality but costs a lot of money

Fraud can happen to anyone. It can happen online or on your own doorstep.

Doorstep crime is when someone turns up at your door and uses lies and deceit to scam or steal from you.

Identity theft is when someone pretends to be you to commit fraud and other crime. They might open bank accounts, apply for loans and buy things using your details and money.

Online fraud is when someone targets you while you’re online, for example with fake emails claiming to be from your bank or by using websites selling products or services that either don’t exist or are fakes.

You can read more about these types of fraud below.

How you might be feeling

Thousands of people are affected by fraud every day. Those who commit fraud are expert liars, able to trick, manipulate and mislead. Fraud is the UK’s most common crime and accounts for around 40% of all recorded crime.

Fraud can cost businesses millions of pounds. However, the impact of fraud on individuals is just as significant.

As well as having to cope with financial loss, being a victim of fraud can make you feel manipulated and humiliated. You might be distressed and anxious about what’s happened, to the extent that your health and wellbeing is affected.

You’re at greater risk of being targeted if you’re older, have disabilities or are considered vulnerable, and the effects can be devastating. You might’ve lost your confidence or independence.

You might not want to report the crime to the police or tell friends and family because of feeling embarrassed or guilty. Please remember, it wasn’t your fault. The criminal is entirely to blame, not you. You’re not alone, and help is available.

Get the help you need

If you’d like more information or support, contact us now.

As well as receiving help from us, you can also get support from other organisations and charities. See below or search our directory.

Your personal network – If you’ve been a victim of a fraud or scam, don’t suffer in silence. Even if you don’t want to report it to the police, tell a trusted friend or family member about it, and use them for support.

Action Fraud– You can report fraud to the National Fraud and Cybercrime Reporting Centre on 0300 123 2040 and discuss your situation with a specialist fraud adviser. The website has more information on all the different types of fraud, preventative measures and news on the latest scams.

MoneyHelper– Money advice, information on scams and tips to spot scams from the Money & Pensions service. Report a scam to the Financial Crimes and Scams Unit on 0800 015 4402.

Citizens Advice– Offers help with scams and your consumer rights.

Gov.uk– For information about your consumer rights, the law and who to contact for consumer protection advice.

Get Safe Online– Advice, preventative measures and a Check a Website tool that helps you to determine whether a website is likely to be legitimate or a scam before you visit it.

Which?– Advice on scams and your consumer rights.

Stop Think Fraud– Advice, reporting and preventative measures from this government-backed campaign.

How to report fraud to the police

In an emergency – if a crime is being committed or has just been witnessed, there’s a risk of injury, or a risk of serious damage to property – dial 999

To report a non-emergency incident or make a general enquiry, dial 101.

Report anonymously by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is a charity that’s independent of the police and keeps all contact anonymous.

Fraud prevention

Fraud comes in many forms. Here are six steps you can take to protect yourself:

Don’t give any personal information (e.g. your name, address, bank details, email or phone number) to organisations or people without first checking who they are and why they need it.

Trusted banks and financial institutions will never send you an email asking you to click on a link and confirm your bank details. Don’t trust such emails, even if they look genuine. To check whether the email is valid or not, call your bank using the contact information you have from previous genuine communication, on the back of your credit/debit card or from the legitimate website. Don’t use the contact details in the suspicious email.

Destroy or shred credit card receipts and post with your name and address on. Identity thieves don’t need much information to clone your identity, and this helps to prevent it.

Sign up to Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure Code if you can. This involves registering a password with your credit card company and adds an additional layer of security to online transactions with participating retailers.

Be extremely wary of unexpected post, phone calls or emails offering you unbelievable deals. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Always question it.

Ways to keep safe from online fraud

While online, slowing down and paying attention to small details can help to keep you safe. For example, by researching whether a company/organisation or individual is legitimate and looking out for the telltale signs (see below).

If something doesn’t look right or just feels too good to be true, it often is. Online fraud often starts with a ‘phishing’ email that asks you for personal information, passwords or bank details.

Telltale signs of fraudulent/scam commerce websites:

prices are much lower than the same item or service for sale elsewhere
items sold out or out of stock elsewhere are freely available
images are low quality or ‘stock’ imagery that has been taken from other websites
descriptions and general website information contains inconsistencies and errors in spelling and grammar
payment methods don’t include platforms such as PayPal or credit cards where the buyer can easily challenge and charge the seller back

Five steps you can take to prevent fraud online:

No bank will ever ask you for passwords or other important information online. If you’re unsure, contact your bank using your own contact details and not the ones in a suspicious email.

When shopping online, use trusted retailers. If you’re making a purchase from a new website that you’ve not used or heard of before, search for the company on platforms such as Trustpilot. This will reveal if others have had positive or negative experiences with the company.

If you’re purchasing something of high value from unregulated trading sites such as Gumtree, Freecycle or Facebook Marketplace, consider doing a Google reverse image search of the item you’re buying to check if it’s been copied from elsewhere.

Be on the lookout for common scams on unregulated trading sites. These include sellers offering items for ‘free’ that can only be sent with very high shipping fees and sellers emailing buyers with links imitating payment sites such as PayPal.

While browsing, double-check any email and website addresses. Do they seem accurate, or do they use different spellings or unexpected destinations?

If you suspect an email isn’t genuine, carefully check the email address that’s contacted you. Legitimate businesses and organisations commonly have very simple emails with their domain.com or .co.uk at the end such as @amazon.co.uk or @apple.com
Email addresses that are overly long, feature random letters and numbers or are from a personal email provider such as Gmail or Outlook are very unlikely to be from a legitimate company. For example, 8dmahika786765@pcsdelhi.in or DHLdeliverynotification@yahoo.com

Identity theft

Identity theft is when someone pretends to be you to commit fraud and other crime. They might open bank accounts, apply for loans or buy things using your name, bank details and money. You may not know it’s happened until long after your money has been stolen.

If you receive bills, invoices or receipts for things you haven’t bought, or if banks you don’t normally deal with contact you about outstanding debts, take action and contact the company concerned. Don’t ignore it. Your identity might’ve been stolen.

Doorstep crime

Sometimes criminals turn up at your door and use lies and deceit to scam or steal from you. This is called doorstep crime. It can include:

distraction burglary – when someone distracts your attention and then steals from you, often with the help of an accomplice
bogus officials – when someone pretends to be someone official, such as a police officer or an employee from your energy provider, in order to scam or steal from you
rogue traders – when traders take your money and carry out unnecessary work, inferior work or no work at all
high pressure sales – some aggressive doorstep sales practices are illegal and break consumer and trading laws and regulations

Can I get my money back?

Action Fraud is a crime reporting bureau that provides intelligence to local police forces to help them disrupt and investigate criminal activity. Action Fraud can’t recover money, however your bank may be able to help.

If your Action Fraud report is sent on to a police force, they’ll consider whether money can be recovered from the criminals. This is something you can discuss with the investigating officer.

If this isn’t possible or there’s no criminal investigation, you can seek recompense through the civil courts. Contact Citizens Advice for guidance on how to make a claim and also what your rights are in certain instances, such as when buying a used car.