A recent report by Citizens Advice said that around 4 million people in the UK fall victim to scams every year. These are usually targeted at the most vulnerable people in society, and can therefore be extremely upsetting and harmful.

Cross-generational issue

Unfortunately, it’s not just “the usual suspects” who fall for online and telephone scams, and neither are the type of people who carry them out. The point of a scam is that it seems plausible, which is why so many people fall for them; this includes younger, IT literate generations who can’t imagine themselves being duped.

The rise of online dating is an example of the ways in which online scammers can catch out the unsuspecting victim. Individual loneliness in the modern world leads people of all adult generations and sexes to look online for company; by definition, these people are vulnerable, at least from a scammer’s point of view.

The point is that anyone using online dating services is unlikely to be thinking about being stolen from; their minds are, literally, on other things. The promise of a future life with a new love has led thousands of men and women every year to give away their life savings.

Suspicion is a virtue

Another common online scam is for someone to receive a call, email or other means of contact (via Facebook, for instance), which is unexpected and brings good news. Long lost relatives that people didn’t know they had, for instance, can sometimes prompt otherwise cautious people into acting irrationally. The popularity of ancestry websites and TV programmes continues to stir up this longing for connections, which is viewed by fraudsters as a way into a complete stranger’s personal life.

A good rule of thumb when avoiding online scams is: if something seems too good to be true, it is. From this starting point, it is easier to spot give-away signs which the scammer will always exhibit. As soon as they ask for confirmation of anything, for instance, this means they don’t know; if not, why not? Never confirm any details over the phone; not even postal address.

Practical checks

Senders’ email addresses, meanwhile, are very easy to check out. The easiest way is to hover over the sender’s name. Whatever name has been entered, the computer will display the actual email address; any discrepancy between the two will be obvious. Common tricks by scammers are to replace details of familiar contacts with others; for instance, replacing “m” with “rn”, or “l” with “1”.

Similarly, any contact from a website can be verified quickly and easily. Google is a good way to start; enter the website’s details and see what results come back. Any legitimate site will have at least some previous hits and reviews. It’s also best to click on the URL itself, and see how easily and securely a connection is made. Bad English and too much advertising are also giveaways.

Stay alert

By staying alert, any online scam should be easy to spot. At the end of the day, a scam is the product of human beings, who have weaknesses. While the scammer may be trying to use yours, by the same token you can look out for theirs.