At Suffolk Building Society we want to help provide our members with tips on how to keep their money safe and protect them from scams. As such we publish regular blogs on our website advising of the latest scams and top signs to look out for.
Spotting a Scam:
Phone calls:
- Take your time to think about what they are asking for and whether it is something that you would expect. Don’t feel under any pressure to act immediately. Explain that you need time to talk to family and get a second opinion. No genuine caller will mind you doing this.
- A genuine bank or building society will never contact you to ask for your PIN or full password. These are for your use only and should not be shared with anyone. They will not call you to request you transfer your funds or hand over money to an employee. Always confirm the identity of your caller by phoning back on a different device, if possible, to a number found on the official website.
- Only give out personal or financial details if it’s to use a product/service that you have requested and is for that use only.
Emails/texts
- Look very carefully at emails or texts that you are not expecting and if in any doubt at all about whether it is a scam or not, don’t reply. Phone the organisation concerned on their official phone number which you can look up on their website.
- Be extremely wary of links and attachments. Do not click on anything unless you are totally sure the email is legitimate.
- Do not be pressurised by wording that indicates you need to act quickly.
- If you get an email or text from somebody asking you to change some payment details don’t do it without checking it out thoroughly first.
Latest Scams
- With travel restrictions being lifted and the excitement of being able to have holidays abroad, be aware of fake holiday booking websites and emails enticing you to book. The fake emails may have links to web pages that masquerade as known holiday companies, and you are advised against clicking on any suspicious links.
- With the job market being very active and lots of vacancies in many sectors it is worth being aware that anyone can create a job listing on a recruitment platform and the attackers can, for example, use this social engineering tactic to collect personal
information and CVs from professionals who believe they are applying to a legitimate company, without realising their data may be sold or used for phishing scam.
