How to protect yourself from falling for a scam

This week I was clearing my emails when an urgent message from PayPal arrived saying someone was trying to access my account.

- MARTYN JAMES

Funnily enough, a fraudster had attempted to get into my bank account a few days before, so I clicked on the link and checked it looked legitimate (which it did).

I entered in my email address and password and clicked… and realised I’d made a basic error.

Looking at the website, it exactly mirrored PayPal down to the design, layout and fields you fill in.

But it was a con. I knew I’d made a mistake straight away (and failed to follow my own advice!) .

In my defence, I was busy and tired and not paying attention. But in one click, I’d compromised many online accounts.

I spent a very sweary three hours going through my online accounts changing all my passwords – just in case. That will teach me. The point is, anyone can fall for a well-crafted scam.

Here’s a reminder of the top text and email scams doing the rounds.

Texts from banks, credit card companies or online payment services