The NatWest’s Little Book of Big Scams, compiled in partnership with the Met Police, highlights the most common scams that customers fall for and provides simple tips on how they can protect themselves. It also provides advice on the best course of action to report and remedy the unfortunate situation for customers who are victims of fraud.
The types of scams that customers are experiencing range from face to face fraud to those carried out anonymously by someone online. Recent research from NatWest showed the most common age to be scammed in Yorkshire is 26-30, with 11% of all scams in the region perpetrated against this age group.
The types of fraud most commonly seen in Yorkshire are ‘advance fee fraud’ (33%), where fraudsters target victims to make advance or upfront payments for goods, services or financial gains that do not materialise and ‘goods not received’ (20%) where a customer pays for goods and services but does not receive them from the seller. This scam is commonly carried out after buying something online.
Commenting on the launch of the Little Book of Big Scams, NatWest Personal Business Banking CEO Les Matheson said:
“Keeping our customers safe and secure is a bank wide priority, and we are committed to helping our customers and communities protect themselves from scams and the fear of being scammed. We believe that prevention through education is key and so we’re delighted to be working with the Metropolitan Police on this informative guide.
“This book and our plan to provide Friends Against Scams Training to one million people across the UK by 2020 will help customers and non customers to spot a scam and empower them to help prevent relatives, neighbours and friends from becoming victims”.
Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gallagher from the Met Police added:
“Financial fraud and online crime is believed to cost the UK £2 million every day and every year the allegations are increasing in number. Your personal data, even just your name, birthday and address can be used by fraudsters to commit a range of frauds and leave you out of pocket. We hope that this booklet will help increase the British public’s awareness of potential scams and avoid any financial loss”.
