Managing partner Alison Lobb warns of the dangers of giving out personal information, and gives advice on rooting out scammers before falling victim to them.
Sadly we live in a world where scamming innocent people out of money has become a profession, and everyone, no matter how clever and streetwise we think we are, can be at risk.
Like many people I get bombarded by calls, texts and emails from people who sound genuine saying they are from Sky, Amazon, our banks, BT, Microsoft, and others, and I know people; sensible, intelligent people, who have fallen for these calls and responded to them.
At this time of year they seem to ramp up in nature as everyone spends more online and we all start looking for bargains. As with most things in life, if it looks too good to be true, it usually is! Only today I have read an article on the BBC website warning of buying advent calendars online https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxvkkjd9vko – last year it was Jo Malone, this year it is Space NK – but there will be many others too.
The point is, these scams work, because generally they come from supposed trusted providers. If a company you are used to dealing with, and is a trusted household name, calls you and offers a limited-time deal, or panics you that your Prime account is going to be closed down or you owe them money, you automatically respond the way they want you to, without stopping to check if it’s genuine.
For solicitors, the big issue is conveyancing fraud, and that has been around for some time. I have seen real examples of extremely genuine looking emails asking for large amounts of money, such as deposits for property purchases, to be sent to specific bank details. Hackers can intercept email threads and silently watch the conversation until the crucial moment when they have learnt all about the matter, and have enough knowledge to impersonate someone at the firm and send a genuine looking email which the client would undoubtedly fall for.
This is why, at Morecrofts, as well as training all our staff to look out for signs of cyber-crime, we go through a lot of steps to check that we know who you are, and that we never give out our bank details by email. We will only ever give you our bank details over the phone or in a hard copy letter and we will never change those details during the course of a transaction. There’s only so much we can do, however.
Like these large companies, we are a trusted provider, and criminals might use your trust in our services to try to con you out of money or personal details which could be used to steal your identity. I know it can be time consuming or frustrating when we ask you to prove your identity, or double-checking bank or other details with you, but this is for the protection of you and all our clients. Please do feel free to ask us if you don’t understand why we are doing things in a certain way, or asking you for particular information, and we can explain that to you.
In your dealings with us, just as in other areas of your life, please be vigilant, ask questions and don’t give away personal information unless you are sure you know who you are giving it to.
My top tips for protecting yourself:
- Never give away personal information on the telephone – details such as your date of birth, mother’s maiden name etc. could be used to steal or clone your identity, or to try and hack your passwords.
- If you don’t think the person you are talking to is genuine, hang up and call them back on the usual number you would use to contact that company, not the one they have called from. Use a different phone line if you can, as they could have left the call open and you would reconnect to them without knowing.
- If someone tries to sell you a product or service, ask them to email you the details to consider and say you will contact them to follow up.
- Never give your bank details to anyone by telephone. if you forget, and do this, and you are not sure if they were genuine, contact your bank immediately.
- Be careful about the passwords you use, try and use random words which can’t be connected with your family, hobbies or interests, as those could be easily guessed, and use combinations of numbers, letters and symbols. Use a password manager to keep passwords safe and don’t use the same password on different accounts.
- Sign up to a scam alert service such as Which Scam alerts which will keep you updated on what scams are going round and what to be wary of.
- Above all never ever transfer money to bank details which have been sent to you by email – email is NOT secure and you don’t know who might have tampered with it. Always check by phone before sending any money out. a professional business will understand why you are asking and should be very happy to help you.