Spotting scams

The scams we hear about most

The grandchild in trouble

Someone calls, sounding upset, and says they are your grandchild. They have been arrested, or in a crash, and they need money now — and please do not tell their parents. Sometimes a second person comes on the line as a lawyer or an officer.

What to do: hang up and call your grandchild yourself, on the number you already have. Or call their parent. The real person will answer, safe and confused. Voices can be faked now, so the voice sounding right is not proof.

The bank fraud department

A call or text says there is fraud on your account, and to protect your money you need to move it to a "safe account", or read out a code they just sent you.

What to do: hang up. Call your bank back on the number printed on your card or your statement — never a number the caller gives you. Your bank will never ask you to move money to keep it safe, and will never ask you to read out a security code.

Tech support

A pop-up fills the screen with a warning and a phone number, or someone calls saying they are from a computer company and your machine has a virus. They want to connect to your computer and then charge you.

What to do: close the window, or shut the computer down. No real company watches your computer and rings you about it. If someone is already connected to your machine, disconnect the internet and call someone you trust.

Government impersonation

A call claiming to be the IRS, Social Security, Medicare, or the police. You owe money, your number has been suspended, or there is a warrant out.

What to do: hang up. These agencies write to you first. None of them will threaten you with arrest over the phone, and none of them take payment in gift cards.

Prizes and sweepstakes

You have won, but there is a fee, a tax, or a shipping charge to pay before the prize can be released.

What to do: ignore it. A real prize never costs money to collect, and you cannot win a competition you did not enter.

Romance and friendship

Someone kind and attentive gets in touch online. Over weeks or months the friendship grows. They always have a reason not to meet or video call. Eventually there is an emergency and they need money.

What to do: never send money to someone you have not met in person, however long you have been talking. Talk to someone you trust about it — this one relies on you feeling too embarrassed to mention it.

Fake invoices and subscriptions

An email says your subscription has renewed for a few hundred dollars. To cancel, call this number. The number is the scam.

What to do: do not call the number in the email. Check the account directly, or your bank statement, to see whether anything was actually charged.

If you are not sure

1. Stop. Nothing genuine falls apart because you took an hour.
2. Hang up, and do not use any number or link they gave you. Look the organisation up yourself.
3. Tell one other person before you do anything with money. A relative, a neighbour, or your bank branch.

If it has already happened

It is not your fault, and you are not the only one. These are practised criminals and they are extremely good at this. Acting quickly matters more than anything else.

1. Call your bank now. Use the number on your card. If money has moved recently there may still be a chance to stop it.
2. Change the passwords for anything they touched, and your email first if you can.
3. Report it. In the United States you can report fraud to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov. If your personal details were taken, identitytheft.gov walks you through the steps.
4. Tell your local police department.
5. Tell someone you trust. Scammers come back to people who paid once, often pretending to be someone who can recover the money for a fee.

Those are public agencies, not partners of ours. We are listing them because they are where the reports actually go.