As a mother who needs to look after your family and make sure that you never fall victim to scams online. Because of the rise in digital devices and the fact that every man and his dog owns a smartphone, it has given scammers a new lease of life to come out of their hiding places and take advantage of the weak.
You may think by now that you know what a scam looks like, but be aware that not every scammer will come under the guise of an African prince looking for a loan. There are pitfalls and tricks that they will use to scam you out Of your hard earned cash without you noticing until it is too late.
However, here are some of the ways you can avoid falling victim to scammers today.
Did they contact out of the blue?
If you ever receive an email or a phone call from a company who you have never contacted or haven’t heard of: it is likely to be a scam. It is incredibly important when you receive any type of contact from a brand that you check it is legitimate. There are several ways you can check the validity of a brand and whether or not it is to be trusted:
Google it- if you have received a phone call or an email from someone who claims to be from a certain company, the first thing you can do is check the phone number or email address by googling it. You will get one of two outcomes here: you will either be faced with the company website and confirmation that this is the correct contact information, or you will be faced with a ton of complaints from people saying they have been contacted by a random number. If you get the latter, avoid all further contact by blocking the number and email address.
Check reviews online- if you have got the former result in your google search you will want to then look online for reviews of the company to see whether they are a legitimate company or scammers. For example you can look at something like the Experiences and customer reviews for Fonehouse and see here that they have terrible reviews. This will send off your warning signals and tell you to not let them contact you anymore.
Too good to be true?
If you are faced with a deal which seems absolutely amazing, it is most likely a scam. Scammers will try to draw you in by offering some amazing fake reviews online as well as make very legit ate looking emails. Don’t be tricked by what you see, make sure you take time to research and you will likely find many irritated people who have been scammed.
Asking for personal details
If you ever receive an email or phone call from your bank or another account, you will never be asked to give out your personal details due to security. Many scammers will find out what bank you are with and then send you an email telling you that your account has been hacked. They will then input a link in the email to ask you to re-enter your account details to confirm your identity. However, the page where you fill in your information is a mask and your info will go directly to the scammers. Make sure you never give your personal details online, and also if you do get a scam email like this: forward it to the real company so they can deal with it.
Strange email addresses
When you get an email from a brand you are familiar with, make sure that you always click the email address name so you can see the exact email address it has come from. For example you could get an email from amazing asking you to log into your account. Click on the name of the email address (Amazon) and you will see the actual email address it has been sent from. The legitimate amazing email address is auto-confirm@amazon.co.uk if you have ordered an item. If the email address look something like this: 1abT346Lgm@domain.com, it is a scam address. Make sure to block the email address and report it.
Grammar
If you get an email where the grammar is horrendous and words are spelt wrong, including the brand name, you can safely say that this is a scam. Make sure you ignore the email and don’t open any links or attachments they are trying to send you.
This is a collaborative post