Scams are everywhere — if we want to stop them, we need to report and talk about them
By: Hannah Knox
Tags: Scamaware, Scams

Suspicious emails pretending to be from the government, texts about a parcel I don’t remember ordering, an out-of-the-blue phone call asking me to move my money…

These are only a few of the scams I’ve come across in the last month.

And I’m not alone. Here at Citizens Advice, we found that more than 2 in 3 adults have been targeted by a scam since the start of the year.

A huge part of tackling scams is making sure people know about them. That’s why every year we run the Scams Awareness campaign. Joining forces with the Consumer Protection Partnership, we want to give people the skills to recognise scams and empower them to take action.

As individuals we can learn the warning signs of a scam and steps we can take to protect ourselves. But we also need to work together as a society if we want to really tackle fraud.

There are 2 key ways to do this.

1. Report any scams you see

Reporting scams helps authorities stop the criminals responsible, and protects others. We estimate that only 1 in 6 incidents of fraud either come to the attention of the police or are reported to Action Fraud or referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). That’s lots of scams we don’t know about, and can’t help to prevent or to support those who have fallen victim.

Reporting informs the work of advice or enforcement agencies to prevent future scams. For instance, it was due to public reporting that the UK medicines and medical devices regulator launched an investigation into fake or unlicensed COVID-19 medical products being sold through unauthorised websites.

And in 2020, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) removed 1.5 million URLs to malicious websites. Their Email Reporting Service alone received nearly 4 million reports of suspect emails, resulting in the removal of over 26,000 scams that hadn’t previously been identified.

Reporting is easier than ever before. There are many online tools which allow people to take action with the click of a button, including our online scams helper and the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) reporting tool for suspicious emails. I used NCSC’s reporting tool to report the scam emails I received. It took seconds to do and could help prevent huge numbers of people from receiving that same email.

If you’ve been the victim of a scam you can contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service online or over the phone 0808 223 1133. We can give you advice and report scams or potential scams to Trading Standards.

You should also report all types of scams to Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud. They can use this information to help tackle scams on a larger scale, protecting others from future harm.

2. Talk about your experiences

A simple way we can all take a stand against scams is to talk more about our experiences with them.

Often we feel a sense of shame or embarrassment if we fall for a scam which prevents us from telling people about it. But talking to friends, family and neighbours about scams could be the difference between someone falling victim to one and knowing what to watch out for.

This Scams Awareness Fortnight, make an effort to talk to others about your scam experiences:

Pledge to talk to at least 3 people you know about scams you’ve seen or heard about

Post on social media about scams — you can even post screenshots of scams you’ve come across to show others what to look out for

By having this conversation as a society we can help warn and protect others from fraud.

Our annual Scams Awareness Campaign runs from the 14–27 June. Find out how you can get involved and help people be #ScamAware on our website.