‘Just say your phone is monitored by the police!’: How to beat phone scammers

By Liam On May 16, 2023

Scammers are becoming so sophisticated that it is sometimes almost impossible to differentiate between genuine and fraudulent phone calls, emails, and texts.

But Money Mail readers are a bunch of smart guys.

Two weeks ago, we asked you for your best tips for identifying fraudsters. Here we reveal the best…

Threat: Fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated in impersonating banks and other financial organizations

See if they know your nickname

My wife and I have a password that is known only to us. We will request this if someone tries to impersonate us by phone, text or email.

When friends message me from a new number or email address, I ask them for my nickname before contacting them.

I don’t have a nickname – so my friends reaction tells me if they are real. Anyone who tries to answer is a scammer.

If someone tries to sell me an investment, I say I’m a retiree living in a rented OAP home. They then assume I have no assets and quickly end the call.

And when in doubt I address them in Welsh or Spanish. That always causes confusion.

Peter Jones, 78, retired Bristol civil servant.

Request the balance on your account

If someone calls from a financial organization where I am a customer, I ask them to identify my account details. Scammers will almost certainly not have access to that data, while a genuine representative should be able to answer.

I ask questions like ‘What is my current balance?’ or ‘What transaction did I make on a certain date?’.

Of course, if the scammers have this information, you are already in deep trouble!

Ian Berk.

Privileged Information: Another reader asks callers claiming to be from a financial organization where they are customers to identify details of my account

Real callers leave a message

Don’t trust anything unless you know who the contact is. Never click on links or attachments in an email.

When I get a call, I don’t answer immediately if the caller is not in my contact list. Real callers leave a message.

If WhatsApp doesn’t recognize the sender, ask yourself, “How did they get my information?”

Keith Spradbury, 76, retired engineer from Leicester.

Message test: a reader advises never to answer immediately if the caller is not in your contact list, since sincere callers usually leave a message

Call back with official numbers

I will not take a call from someone to walk me through security until I have properly identified them.

That may mean calling them back with a number I know is safe.

If you call them back, make sure you know how to reach them using their name and which department they are calling from.

Never call them back on a number they gave you.

Martin Anderson, 75, IT entrepreneur from Reading.

Other one-line words of wisdom

Don’t answer a number you don’t know. Someone told me that if you answer a call from a number you don’t know, the caller knows it’s a live number and resells it to other companies.

Ann, Crewe.

Tell them they called a police-monitored number and they are being tracked to make sure they are genuine. Complete tosh of course, but they hang up just in case.

Ann, Plymouth.

Buy a phone with built-in call blocking. If the number isn’t in your contact list, they won’t be able to get through.

Ann, Worchestershire.

Just remember one thing: no one has ever lost money by putting down the phone for a cold call.

Ann, Lancashire.

Use a fake girls name for clubs

When you join an interest group or club, you are usually asked to log into their electronic membership system.

In far too many cases, the process requires your personal information, such as your mother’s maiden name, your first school, or the name of your first pet.

I doubt these club sites are difficult for hackers to break into, and they can then easily access your valuable personal information.

They can even use this information to impersonate you at your bank. I do not risk disclosing such information.

Instead, I use “golf cap” for “name of first pet,” which protects me while still meeting the requirements of the system.

Phillip, retired Derbyshire farm manager.

Personal data: be careful what information you give out when you join new online interest groups or clubs, as hackers might

Tell them to write to you

Ask the person calling to write to you, but don’t give your address. A real caller, like your bank, already has your address.

Pat Aldaya, 80, retired council worker from Northamptonshire.

Turn the tables and grill callers

When I answer my landline to a suspected scammer, I deceptively introduce myself as a detective.

I inform the caller that I am present at the scene of the householder’s murder and that I need to know the identity of the caller, the name of his employer, the reason for the call, and the nature of his or her relationship with the deceased .

They end our conversation very quickly!

Jim Oldcorn, 79, retired Lancashire detective.

Six tips from a TV scammer

Nick Stapleton presents Scam Interceptors, the TV series that exposes the con artists who plague our lives.

It is repeated on BBC One on Mondays at 8.30pm and is available on iPlayer.

Nick says, “Creating Scam Interceptors has taught us a lot about the world of scams – and these six tips are the best advice we’ve come up with to help everyone protect themselves.

1) If the contact comes out of nowhere, assume it’s a scam until proven otherwise.

2) If it’s a call, tell the caller you want to hang up and call back the organization they claim to represent on a number you have or can find for them.

Any legitimate organization will have no problem with you doing this. However, a scammer will do anything to keep you on the phone because they know that if you call back on a legitimate number, you won’t be talking to them.

3) When it comes to written correspondence, double check as much as possible before doing anything. If it’s an email, you can click on the sender’s name to see the actual email address that sent the message.

By doing this, you can verify that the email actually comes from the official web address of the company claiming to be sending the email.

4) Is there a time-sensitive element in the correspondence? This is a huge giveaway.

Even in emergency situations, no professional organization would ever want to make their clients feel like they are being forced to do something they are not comfortable with.

5) If the correspondence you received leads you to do something you wouldn’t normally do, such as moving large amounts of money or downloading software to your phone or computer at their request, you may be dealing with a scammer.

6) Most importantly, take a deep breath and talk to someone about it. Whatever correspondence you’re dealing with, you have time to pause, think about it and, ideally, ask someone else, such as a trusted friend or family member, what they think.

Two pairs of eyes or ears are always better than one.

moneymail@dailymail.co.uk

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