Fraudsters may be expecting bumper profits from the season of goodwill.
The amount of money lost to scams and the number of shoppers duped spikes in December as people spend more online. With fraud already on the rise — £754 million was stolen by criminals in the first half of the year, up 30 per cent on last year — festive fraud is expected to follow suit. Here’s what to look out for.
Unfestive fees
Loan fee scams, where the victims are asked for an up-front fee when applying for a loan, typically spike around Christmas as people look to borrow money to deal with the costs.
Once you have paid the fee, the criminals either disappear or come back asking for more. Once you hand this over it’s unlikely you’ll see them — or your money — ever again.
The FCA has even produced an Anti-Fraud Jingle to inform consumers about the dangers of loan fee fraud.
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Parcel problems
Four out of five fraud cases that start with a text message involve fake texts supposedly from Royal Mail, DPD or Hermes, according to the bank TSB.
The criminals send you a text saying that you owe a small fee for a missed delivery. If you click on the link in the text message it will send you to a fake website that looks like the delivery company’s, you will be asked to fill in a form and the scammers will harvest your data. The fraudsters will then call pretending to be from your bank’s fraud team. They will mention the delivery text message, say that your account has been compromised and tell you to transfer your money into a “safe account”. If you do this your money is probably lost.
Your bank would never ask you to transfer funds, and if you are unsure if you are legitimately talking to your bank, hang up and ring the number listed on its website. Do this even if the number on your phone matches the number listed because scammers can “spoof” an institution’s phone number.
Terrible taxes
’Tis the season . . . for tax returns. With the self-assessment deadline fast approaching on January 31, scammers often dress up as the taxman. They use emails, phone calls and text messages to try to convince taxpayers they are from HM Revenue and Customs, and will mimic government messages to make them appear authentic.
They will try to trick you into handing over money by pretending you owe HMRC a bill, or obtain personal and financial information by offering a rebate. If in doubt, hang up or ignore and call HMRC.
Not so sweet charity
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Scammers often try to steal your money by posing as a legitimate well-known charity or a fake charity they have created. They may also pose as individuals needing donations for health or other reasons.
The key red flags are: you have never heard of the charity; you have heard of it but the website looks strange; you are put under pressure by a representative; you have been contacted via email or text and have never been involved with the charity before; and the charity does not accept cheques.
Merry Christmas, Mum
Hearing from your children around the holidays might seem like nothing out of the ordinary, but be extra wary if you get a text from a new number claiming to be one of your family.
Scammers are sending messages to random numbers, saying: “Hey mum, it’s me. I got a new phone, can you delete the old number and save this one?” or “Hey dad, I’ve somehow lost my phone so this is my new number.”
If the parent falls for this part, the scammer will often go on to ask for money. One, pretending to be someone’s daughter, said they needed money because the bank had put a 48-hour security block on her banking app. Another duped a father into sending £2,000 for an online course afterpretending to be his son who had lost his old phone so could not get texts from the bank to confirm the payment.
