Take Five – Stop Fraud: Coronavirus Fraud and Scams

Fraud can have a devastating impact on victims. Advanced security systems and innovations in which the finance industry invests to protect customers stopped more than £1.8 billion of unauthorised fraud. But despite this, criminals successfully stole £1.2 billion through fraud and scams in 2019.

Take Five is a national campaign that offers straight-forward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud. This includes email deception and phone-based scams as well as online fraud – particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations.

Many people may already know the dos and don’ts of financial fraud and scams – that no-one should ever contact them out of the blue to ask for their PIN or full password, or ever make them feel pressured into moving money to another account. The trouble is, in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to forget this.

After all, trusting people on their word is something everyone tends to do instinctively. If someone says they’re from your bank or a trusted organisation, why wouldn’t you believe them? Take Five urges you to stop and consider whether the situation is genuine – to stop and think if what you’re being told really makes sense.

Led by UK Finance, and backed by Her Majesty’s Government, the campaign is being delivered with and through a range of partners in the UK payments industry, financial services firms, law enforcement agencies, telecommunication providers, commercial, public and third sector organisations.

For more information, please visit: https://takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/coronavirus-fraud-and-scams/