Page 20 - Winter 2019 2020 FINAL_Neat

DON’T EVER BE
DON’T EVER BE
20
FOOLED - READ ON!
FOOLED - READ ON!
By Danielle Richardson to Share
on Facebook Share on Twitter
Share by email etc. etc. etc.
Your phone can lie to you. When
it rings, the caller display will show a
number or name on the screen. It could
look like the phone number on your
bank statement, or even the back of your debit card, but that doesn’t guarantee it’s your bank
calling. Instead, you could be talking to a fraudster, displaying a false number to make you think
they’re from your bank. It’s a trick known as malicious number spoofing. Telecoms regulator
Ofcom told us it doesn’t know how many maliciously spoofed calls there are in the UK each
year. But at Which? we’ve seen a marked increase in reports of these types of scams in 2019,
and we’re concerned about both the scale of the problem and how much victims are losing.
Here, we explain how number spoofing works and how you can protect yourself from getting
scammed.
Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/10/whos-really-call-
ing-you-an-investigation-into-the-worrying-rise-of-number-spoofing/ -
Which?
The real cost of number spoofing Fraud cost the UK hundreds of millions of pounds in the first
half of 2019, according to figures from banking association UK Finance. £56.3m was lost to im-
personation scams, where criminals posing as police, bank staff or other businesses tricked vic-
tims into sending them money. Of every £1 lost, just 30p was returned to victims. Which? talked
to several people whose lives have been adversely affected by number spoofing scams. In April,
Simon (not his real name) received a phone call from a man claiming to be from Santander’s
fraud department.
He said a major computer virus was affect-
ing certain banks and Simon’s money had to be
transferred into new accounts. The caller’s num-
ber matched the phone number on the back of
Simon’s debit card, so Simon followed the instruc-
tion to make four £10,000 bank transfers – his life
savings.
Simon realised it was fraud a day later, when
he read about a very similar scam in Which?
Money. After Which? intervened in the case, San-
tander reviewed it, taking into account severe
health problems Simon was suffering from at the
time, and decided to refund him the full £40,000.
Since Simon became a victim, most banks
and building societies have signed up to an indus-
try code to compensate bank transfer fraud vic-
tims who’ve done nothing wrong. But it’s likely
some victims of number spoofing will have their refund requests refused, in cases where the
bank believes the victim was at fault. ‘I have at least 60 blocked phone numbers’ Which? mem-
ber Charles Gibbs has blocked at least 60 landline and mobile numbers on his phone, all of
which have been used to make suspicious calls. ‘The calls are either a ‘dead’ line or a recorded
message,’ he says. ‘The messages tend to say they are from BT and that there is a problem
with my internet connection – but my phone and internet aren’t with BT. I have also had calls
stating they were from HMRC.’