The other week I recieved a call on my mobile from another mobile number. Thinking it was my OH, who had recently just replaced his phone with a new one which came with a temporary number, I amswered it expecting to herar him at the other end. However, instead of hearing him, it was another man asking me if I had recently been involved in a car accident. I ended up having a short conversation on the phone saying I had not, to which he asked me if my partner or anyone in my household had. I replied no, not to my knowledge so he hung up on me. I later told my OH about this, and lo and behold he had heard of this on the internet as it was a scam, but because I said no to the man, I was no good to him. However, I am sure someone he called would have had recent car accident and who knows if they would have seen through his scam?
Fraud happens all of the time and I would think at some point everyone is affected by it in one way or another. Infact according to the Financial Fraud Action UK, fraud cost the British population more than £600m in 2013. I am not surprised to be honest , I have had it happen to me twice in the last couple of years. I have had someone access my bank account and go on a shopping spree in Barcelona before, which is hilarious because when it happened the only ,oney going into my account was my child benefit money!! Hardly enough to justify a shopping trip at the best of times, let alone designer goods in another country! I have also had someone hack my Next account and order items claiming to be me! Thankfully, my bank were on the case and saw it was unusual activity and put a stop to it for me, and a new card was issued.
This is why it is so important to be vigilant when it comes to financial fraud. To assist its customers, Natwest have launched its new How To Fight Fraud Tool .
This tool has been set up to reduce fraud in 2014, and Natwest believe it is crucial to understand the tactics that criminals are using, and more importantly, learn how we can protect ourselves. The tool is very easy to use – I mean even I had a play with it and it made sense to me! And at the end of the day, if it helps us to protect ourselves from fraud, and ultimately reduce this crime, then I think we should all make use of it
Have you ever been affected by financial fraud?
we have had our debit card compromised twice, years ago now, took weeks to get the money back, but we did as we were the victim.
I also remember having a huge ongoing incident with what was suppose to be my bank. They kept phoning and asking me for details, well if they knew who they were phoning they would have had info they asked for, asked them to stop phoning me but they said they could not until I verified my details with them…….hmmm not sure if it was a scam or not but after about 50 times of phoning they stopped.