Here are our simple tips to avoid phone scams. As the elderly are often the target for phone scams, we would encourage you to share this with older relatives and friends.
- Always check out callers, especially cold callers who claim to be from organisations such as Microsoft, or your telephone or internet service – it’s 99.9% certain that they are not who they say they are.
- Legitimate organisations will encourage you to call back via a number you have, obtained from a trustworthy source. Remember to hang up and wait a few minutes before calling out – this stops them keeping the line open, and always check for a dial tone for dialling the number
- Do not assume the number displayed on your phone is accurate as these can be fabricated and can lead you to believe the caller is in the UK or from a trusted organisation.
- Don’t call phone numbers on pop-up messages which indicate there is a problem with your computer.
- If you search for a number, don’t use a number from the advertising area – bad actors can pay to be listed there, you need to check the normal, organic details.