How to stay one step ahead of scammers

CROOKS stole a staggering £1.3billion in a relentless barrage of fraud and scams last year, a new report reveals.

- TRICIA PHILLIPS

The financial consequences for those tricked by fraudsters can be devastating, wiping out pensions and savings, and leaving victims penniless as more than half of the money stolen is not refunded.

New figures from banking industry body, UK Finance, show the scale of fraud taking place and how thieves keep coming up with ever more sophisticated scams.

When experts explain how to spot one, a common piece of advice they give is if an investment looks too good to be true, it’s probably a scam. The problem is we don’t know enough about investments to work out whether what we are being promised is actually too good to be true or not.

There is a glimmer of good news as research from investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown found that we are getting better at spotting some common scams. Impressively, 85% of people know that if they get a call out of the blue with the offer of a “pensions review” it’s likely to be a scam. Meanwhile, 87% of people know that if they’re told about an opportunity but they need to act fast to take advantage of it, they may be dealing with a fraudster.

The older we are, the more confident we are we can spot scams: 89% of those aged 55 and over said they would spot one, compared to 82% of those aged 35-54 and 68% of younger people.

However, when it came to working out whether something on offer was so good it was probably a scam, we fell short.