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I was contacted by my bank to alert me to an unusual amount being taken out of my account. It was for nearly £200 and was for a well known supermarket's online grocery order. I had never spent that much in a supermarket in my life. Luckily, the bank were on the ball and they gave me a full refund. However, around a year later when checking my bank account one day I noticed that £157 had been taken out from the same well known supermarket's online grocery service. I contacted the bank who were very good and I also contacted the supermarket to let them know. After all, whoever had made the fraudulent order should be easy to trace as the shopping would have had to be delivered somewhere, so they should have an address. They couldn't have been more disinterested. They acknowledged that I hadn't made the order but said that if I wanted to pursue it I would have to contact the police myself as they wouldn't be investigating!!

When we were in Ireland a couple of years ago, I handed my credit card over to pay. He took it into the office and as I followed him in, he was taking it out of one machine and putting it in another. "Oh, that one's not working," he told me and I thought nothing of it...
Fast forward a couple of days and when we went to pay for our camping with the same card, it was declined. The owner had been given a code to ring, so they did that and the problem was resolved after asking us to confirm our home address. Next day, we filled up with petrol before boarding the ferry and the card was again declined, so I had to pay with another.

When we got back home, there was a message on our answerphone from CC company asking us to ring them. They'd been alerted by a number of suspicious transactions, £500+ on software in Cork, a few hotel stays and high end purchases. So our card being declined ws them being sensibly safe. However, when I recalled the incident in the garage and said I could probably identify where the problem originated they weren't at all interested.
We were never held responsible for the fraudulent payments, so I never pursued it, but you'd have thought they would!

getting letters through about competions

I recently watched a programme where details from credit cards can be extracted by phones brushing against your pocket etc. and be used to make online orders. I sent for a pack of RFID blocking wallets to give to friends and family to try to help this happening to anyone.

I never click a link on an email or download from anyone I don't recognise

I never ever click on a link to access a website to do anything to do with finances! I always key in or go to the company's website independently.

I also check any phone numbers I don't recognise online, before answering them.

I agree that you should be very wary about taking financial advice from other people, even friends.

Luckily we haven't been victims of any financial scams, and check our online banking to ensure balances are correct.
We all receive so many emails each day, although some have spelling/grammar errors, others look plausible. I would never click on an email link, but would go directly to a website to check any potential problems.
Ensuring anti-virus software is up to date and running, is also essential to prevent malware being placed on computers. I also cover the webcam on the laptop with tape to ensure privacy.
Using complex passwords and logging off after visiting pages, also helps. A password manager, such as RoboForm helps to 'remember' the password so you don't need to.
We need to be vigilant at all times, and not trust anyone.

Sky rang my Mother in Law saying she owned them money and they wanted to take payment over the phone. Thankfully she said she'd have to speak to her son first, as it was a scam.

i ften get fake paypal emails saying my account have been limited. i never open them though

If you receive a phone call asking for details, a genuine company won't be offended if you say you want to call back. Also, never disclose any PIN or Passcodes over the telephone as a genuine bank would never ask for these.

I once had my cashcard skimmed. Fortunately, the scammers didn't get any money, because my bank spotted that someone was supposedly trying to take money out of a cash machine in Poland within an hour of me taking some out in Manchester. Since then, I have always checked the machine very carefully. I feel round the card slot to see if there's anything there that shouldn't be, I always look to see if there's anything which might be a camera, and I always cover my fingers with my other hand when I enter my PIN.

My daughter was really keen to go to the Reading & Leeds festival a few years back. She found tickets quite reasonably priced and begged me to buy them for her birthday present. I duly went online to the site and paid several hundred pounds for 2 tickets. Only a week before the event I received an email telling me the website I had bought from had closed down and it directed me to my credit card supplier in order to claim 'compensation'. Clearly they knew how to play the system and luckily I HAD paid with my Tesco Bank card so they duly started a fraud claim and got my money back. Daughter had no tickets but I really didn't care as I learned a valuable lesson. Always look for htpps: in the web address otherwise it isn't a secure site, and always pay by credit card as then you'll have added protection if things do go wrong.

Never give or confirm any details to anybody who phones you, just stay silent while they speak and then put the phone down. It's always either someone trying to sell you something, or a scammer. Either way, any info you give is put in their system and sold on to others.
If you're getting repeated calls, state simply that their call is being recorded and then stay silent.

One day I returned from work to find myself & partner had received emails to say a payment was being taken out of our accounts, unfortunately my partner clicked on the link. Thank goodness we had good security as when we tried to log onto our bank accounts, everything went red. My partner contacted the bank to explain what he had mistakenly done (TSB) they were very good and put his mind at rest, I advised my bank also, than ran Malware & Malabytes which showed what the virus, I still didn't feel secure until I had taken it to our company IT dept who checked it all over for me. It is so easy to press a button without thinking

I seem to get scam emails from Paypal every day. I now forward every single one of them to the Paypal fraud department and let the deal with it. I know that if I am not addressed by my proper name (not my email name) then it is a phishing scam. I get a lot from HMRC too and forward those to them as I do with iTunes and Apple. By having all these "report phishing scams" email addresses in my contacts I don't have to type in the address each time so I report every one of them!

I was approached outside the supermarket about potentially changing my energy supplier. I thought yes, probably a good idea to enquire if I could switch to a cheaper provider and agreed they could send me more info - all I gave was my name and address. Next thing I know, I'm getting direct debit requests and my existing supplier asking what they'd done wrong. Moral of the story - don't give any info - they don't need your bank account details, just your home address and supplier!

My elderly father lost over £50k to scammers who contacted him claiming to be from a genuine company that he already held some investments with. They persauded him to transfer his money abroad promising returns that were slightly above those he could expect if he invested the money in this country.

Alarm bells should have rung when they asked him to transfer the money abroad separately in amounts of around £3k, but he claims that he didn't think this was strange because he thought he was dealing with a company that he had dealt with for years, and that this was the process for investing abroad.

The fraud only came to light when my father was contacted by the Fraud Squad who had to break the news to him that he had been dealing with scammers and he was unlikely to get his money back. Ironically my father was very suspicious when first contacted by the police and took some convincing that they were genuine and that the scammers were not in fact from his investment company!

My father had always been very financially astute but his confidence took a severe knock after losing so much money. He never got a penny back.

It probably goes without saying but if you have a joint account with your partner and have credit cards/mortgages/investments etc - always be an involved and active participant when
It comes to statements, decisions, signing anything. My ex was a lawyer who financially advised his clients. I trusted him totally running the household finances and left him to it. He forged my signature to open bank accounts, remortgage the house twice, insisted on doing my late parents probate and failed to pass on my inheritance. Our house was repossessed, I had debts run up in my name totalling £250,000. The fight to clear myself of liability for these took years. I ended up divorced, penniless and homeless after a 23 year marriage. My situation was pretty extreme but it’s a scary warning that fraud can be perpetrated by the very last person we would expect.

We have had a Tesco credit card for many years. We have had fraudulent transactions on it (different card numbers) four times. Tesco are excellent finding transactions that are not you. I cannot praise them enough! They now have an automated service phoning (secure number, I know its them) you to ask if you have made such and such payment. eg, Did you spend £16.90 at Next on 20th January? You just press a number for yes or no and then if they are happy you are finished but if you say no they transfer you to fraud department.

Remember the government wont email you or ring you about tax refunds! Don open the emails they are deffinatley scams!!!

greig

So many phishing emails land in my inbox. Saying they are from banks or paypal concerning suspicious activities in my accounts. If you google the first sentence of the email, the results usually show the emails are scams and should be reported. I can see elderly and vulnerable people falling for these and giving their details to these scamsters.

When we were looking at places to rent a couple of separate "prospective landlords" asked for a deposit before seeing the accommodation. They said wanted to know that we were serious.

never send money through a non secure way, I sent money through bank transfer for a pup for my son as he was so excited, to then find out I had been scammed, because I sent it I had no come back, 1 upset son

I try my best but it's so difficult, even companies you believe to be 'safe' occasionally report data breaches - my most recent was Experian, and trusted web applications - CCleaner. I consider myself to err on the side of caution, but still my email must be on a spam list as I get so many phishing ones through, and I've given up answering my landline as it's always sales or scams.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.