Banking |
|
Your Money > Banking Articles > How safe is...
|
By Sarah Modclock
I thought it was my imagination but no, there really are lots more fraudulent emails claiming to be from banks and other firms in recent months. My junk inbox has been full of them and now I know why. Fraud is big business. Far from dampening it, the recession has actually fuelled record amounts of fraud as thieves get more inventive about how they steal from you. In fact, according to latest figures it has tripled in the past year. About a year ago when lenders were merrily dishing out as much credit as we could wish for, the fraudsters' were happy to steal your ID and then apply for loans and credit in your name. Often you would have no idea this had happened until you had a look at your credit record or were chased for debts. Proving your innocence could be time-consuming and stressful. Now that lenders are super-tight with credit, the thieves are finding it hard to get new cards and loans set up and so they have turned their attention to your cards and loans. After all it's much easier to abuse an existing account or line of credit than try to get a new one at the moment. Takeover fraud takes over Stealing from someone else's financial accounts is called 'takeover fraud' and it went up an incredible 207% last year as belts tightened, according to Cifas - the UK 's Fraud Prevention Service. Fraud victims are preyed upon by organised criminals, faceless fraudsters and sometimes even those close to them. It can happen to you "The worst thing is not knowing who to trust" says Selina Hall - whose credit card account was compromised to fund multiple online purchases over just a few days. Selina was lucky that this sudden spend was out of character and her card provider called her to verify these transactions. Of course, she was able to confirm that she had not made the purchases, so that they could be stopped. For Selina, however, the experience has been deeply unsettling. "I've always been worried about having my details stolen and being impersonated, but in this case they did not even have to go to those lengths. I've been left wondering who broke into my accounts and how? I feel trapped: as though I can no longer use my own accounts for fear of having it happen again. The uncertainty has been scary." A similarly upsetting experience happened to Peter Ayres and his partner, whose joint account was practically emptied. "We'd gone away for the weekend and my partner went to the cash machine one afternoon only to come back utterly white with shock. What should have been an account with several thousand pounds in it was down to just a few hundred" said Mr Ayres. Having checked previous statements, Mr Ayres noticed that there were numerous small transactions taken out over the previous 6 weeks, before the account was nearly emptied in one swoop. The stress of the experience led to his partner needing to take time off work. "It's been crippling and has taken so much effort to get sorted out. We're still not there yet. My partner went into panic attacks and I feel quite paranoid. I'm not sure whether to trust anyone I speak to, and even wonder whether the money was stolen by an acquaintance or colleague." Richard Hurley of Cifas comments: "Anyone who thinks that fraud is a victimless crime should think again. The financial costs can be bad enough, but the emotional and psychological effects are unquantifiable. "The financial damage to fraud victims like Ms Hall and Mr Ayres may eventually be undone, but the anxiety that they and their partners have suffered, and the effort required to get the problem rectified should not be underestimated. "Cases such as these just go to demonstrate how parasitic fraudsters are: funding their own lifestyle with no thought for the scope of the damage that they inflict." How does takeover fraud happen? Phishing - the practice of sending spoof e-mails which try to persuade unsuspecting victims to supply confidential bank and personal details - is back in fashion. The e-mails will appear to come from what at first glance looks like a genuine bank or payment service, and will contain links to genuine looking websites. If you supply the personal details that they are seeking, the fraudster is then able to use them to run up bills in your name. I used to think these emails were so badly put together that they would be very easy to spot by just about anyone. Sadly, many people are still caught out by them and now they are getting better at it. One that caught my eye last week purported to come from Amazon and told there were funds due to me if only they had the bank account details to send the money to. This is the sort of thing that I think is more likely to slip under the radar. Other emails contain 'good news' about your recent win on a foreign lottery that doesn't exist. They will ask for money to cover the administrative costs of sending your winnings. Advanced fee fraud - where you are asked to send bank details to help someone take a large amount of money out of their country in return for a slice of the money - is still catching people out. But as they scams get more publicity, the fraudsters are using alternative approaches - they may even contact you after you have been scammed, posing as lawyers and offering to get your money back. But this too is another attempt at fraud - in case you have any money left. Email is not the only route though. You may get a phone call to your home from someone claiming to be from your bank and asking for card numbers and passwords in order to ‘change' these for your protection, often by playing on very basic fears (such as security and theft) or the (misplaced) trusting nature of their victims. How can you protect yourself? Our tips.. 1) In practice, a genuine company will never ask you to supply such sensitive details in this way. If you do receive a communication of this sort via email, do not respond, or click on any of the links in the message, or copy and paste any of the links from the message into your browser. Instead, forward it by email to Bank Safe Online: reports@banksafeonline.org.uk. 2) If you receive a phone call from someone asking for banking or credit information tell them you will call back. Regardless of the number they give you, check your bank or card statements and call the customer services number printed on it. When you get through, you will find out if the call to your was genuine or not. 3) Keep your anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall in good order and to remain vigilant. 4) Look at the bottom left hand corner of your monitor for an address appearing whenever you run your computer mouse's terminal over a link in an email. Here, if you are dealing with a phishing email, it is quite likely that you will notice how the address in the bottom left-hand corner does not tally with the company name or address that the email is supposed to be from. 5) Look for web addresses that begin with 'https' or have a padlock symbol displayed next to them. These are two common ways that you can be sure that the site you are using is secure. 6) Keep an eye on relatives - particularly the elderly - to ensure that they do not respond to fraud attempts. Useful links: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||