So you’re an unhappy victim of a scam, apart from resolving the problem which was covered in the earlier post, what else should you do, and are there any other scams you should be aware of. Let’s look at the latter first.
Scams are not restricted to your computer, they can be “served” to you by phone or by text as well. [They can also be enacted face-to-face with vulnerable people.] The advice is constant and clear …
- Don’t give your details to anyone you don’t know – if in doubt say you’ll ring them back
- Don’t click on links in text messages (and emails of course) from people/organisations you can’t verify
- Don’t immediately answer a call from an unknown number, or a number withheld, if it’s a genuine call the person at the other end will speak; if they don’t, the connection will be dropped.
Then help stamp the practice out by reporting the matter to Ofcom. There are further details on how to report a scam on this page from Which? and this one from Citizens Advice.
Then there’s a UK website “Stop scams” – where you can report a scam by ringing the number 159. It works in exacgtly the same way as 101 (for the police) and 111 (for the NHS).
I would also suggest sharing details of the scam with Which? using their Scam Sharer Tool
By doing this – if you subscribe to their free newsletter – you will help others, and you, become aware of the scams that are current at that time. Here’s an example of what you’ll see delivered to your Inbox.
A couple of useful tools to check the veracity of a caller …
Who called me – a service that returns details of the likelihood, or otherwise, of the caller being a scammer …
… and Hiya available as an Android and iOS app – which I have to admit I’ve not tried yet …
So what were the “top” scams of 2024, and what should we expect in 2025? Which? in these two posts reports the past, and predicts the future …
Five scams trends for 2025 – unfortunately it’s totally predictable that AI will become part of the scammer’s armoury of tools.