- Counterfeit Goods – Stay vigilant for counterfeit goods. These can range from poorly made t-shirts with rip-off logos to electronics which could break after one use or even be dangerous.
- Charity scams – They tend to operate in two key ways: By creating a completely bogus charity and appealing for donations through a website or donation boxes. Misusing a legitimate charity’s name and supposedly appealing on their behalf, but the real charity will never see your donation.
- TV Licensing – The fake emails claim the recipient has overpaid or is owed a refund which hasn’t been paid because TV Licensing has the wrong bank account details. But these emails are just a ruse to steal bank account and personal details.
- Sextortion – People targeted by this email scam are threatened with non-existent sensitive videos of themselves and are confronted by their actual password in the first sentence.
- Number spoofing – This year, there has been an increase in scammers using number spoofing which makes it looks like they’re contacting their victim from a legitimate organisation, either on caller ID or the message sender.
- Tech support scams – Can start with either a phone call, an email or a pop-up message appearing on your computer, stating there is something wrong with your computer or internet connection and that it needs to be fixed.
- Impersonation fraud – Fraudsters pose as police, bank staff, government agencies or utility companies and use their position of supposed authority to convince someone to transfer money out of their account or click a dangerous link.
- Holiday scams – A lot of us are starting to think about booking a holiday in the sun. But there are criminals who want to want to exploit your need for some RnR and have set up fake villa websites to try to trick you into paying down-payments or deposits for bogus holiday rentals.
- Romance scams – Looking for love in the New Year often leads to a rise in the number of people joining dating sites and apps. But be aware that scammers will be on the prowl.
- Bitcoin scams – Fake celebrity endorsements are often used by scammers to make it look like their bogus Bitcoin or cryptocurrency investment is legitimate.
- WhatsApp scams – Where fraudsters try to lure people into handing over their personal data in return for vouchers to big name chains, such as Costa Coffee, Sainsbury’s and JD Sports.
- Marketplace scams – Last Christmas, at least 15,000 online shoppers lost £11 million through social media and online marketplaces, such as Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace and eBay. Mobile phones were the most common item fraudster’s enticed people with to steal their money.
This post is also available in: Welsh
