Thousands of people are still falling for email, text and phone call scams.
Merseyside Police warned people on January 24, 2022 about a recent scam that left a woman out of pocket.
The woman received a phone call from 'police' to say her National Insurance number was compromised.
READ MORE: Man's clever question to WhatsApp scammer that saved him £900
The fraudsters, who were claiming to be officers from Merseyside Police, told the victim she needed to purchase gift cards and send photos of them so they could be reimbursed.
The victim grew suspicious and reported the incident to Merseyside Police, who informed her it was a scam call.
She has since been fully reimbursed by her bank.
With the recent warning to be aware from Merseyside Police in mind, Which? has rounded up five of the most seen scams from 2021 for people to be aware of in the coming year.
1. 'There's a problem with your Amazon account'
The Amazon Prime scam continued to do the rounds in 2021.
This scam targets victims through phone calls using a recorded message that prompts you to call back to fix an issue with your account.
Sometimes a real person may be calling from a call centre. They may threaten to close your account if you don’t act quickly – which usually means handing over your payment details.
Amazon never calls customers like this, unless it’s to follow up on an issue you’ve raised.
Amazon phishing scams were also rife. There are a variety of different warnings scammers might send to trick you into clicking links that lead to fake Amazon sites.
Usually, they claim your payment details need updating or include a fabricated invoice for something expensive that you didn’t order, in an attempt to worry you.
You can usually spot these phishing attempts by checking to see if the email is not addressed to you personally, or the invoice is in a foreign currency.
Always sign in to your Amazon account from a new browser window to check orders and payment details rather than clicking on links in emails. It can take longer, but it’s safer.
2. 'Your National Insurance number has been compromised'
In November, Ofcom reported that 45 million people in the UK received a scam call in the last year.
It ordered telecoms networks to block calls from overseas from being masked with local UK numbers – a common tactic.
But networks are skeptical, saying this won’t have much effect due to internet calling technology.
One phone scam that peaked last year, and continues to do the rounds, is a recorded voice message claiming to be from the National Crime Agency.
The sternly worded warning from the National Crime Agency sounds serious.
One victim told Which? she received several of these calls over a few days and was too anxious to sleep because she didn’t know if it was genuine.
If you listen carefully, you can tell that the recorded voice is not a real person speaking – it’s a ‘bot’ that’s been auto-generated by software.
The call tells you to ‘press 1 to be connected to an agent.’ But this is a hotline to a scammer who will try to extract information and bank details from you.
The National Crime Agency doesn’t communicate with members of the public.
Similar calls claiming to be from HMRC and warning you that you owe tax were also very common last year.
These calls tend to peak around tax return season in the spring and caught a lot of people off guard last year.
Again, HMRC does not contact people in this way. Contact HMRC directly if you have concerns about income tax or your National Insurance number.
3. 'You've missed a delivery'
The most common text message scams last year were warnings about missed deliveries or outstanding delivery charges. The delivery company most impersonated last year was Royal Mail, according to the number of reports we received, followed by Hermes and DPD. We followed a Royal Mail delivery scam message to show you what happens.
These fake texts have a more sinister motive. Once they’ve conned you into handing over your details, scammers target you with other scams, using the details you’ve handed over to gain your trust.
Other text scams operating like this include fake texts from banks.
The message is often an alert that a new payee has been set up or an unknown transfer has taken place, which asks the recipient into clicking through on the link to check the details.
The link takes them to a cloned bank website which will likely ask for login details, PIN, and other personal information. Avoid clicking on links in texts is your best bet to avoid text scams.
Criminals are able to track what mobile numbers interact with the links included in text messages, which lets them know what numbers are active.
With this knowledge, they target you with more text and phone scams.
4. 'Apply for your Covid Passport now'
Troublingly, these scams quickly adapted as the Covid-19 situation evolved.
At the start of 2021, Which? mostly had reports about fake invitations for Covid tests and jabs, as the number of cases soared and the vaccination programme ramped up.
Many scams requested payment or bank details in order to book a test or a jab when these services were completely free.
As venues reopened and travel restrictions loosened in the summer months, phishing requests for payments for Covid passports began circulating.
The NHS has been communicating with patients through text messages, and it can be difficult to tell the real deal from the scams.
The key thing to remember is that Covid services are always free on the NHS to British Citizens and those who reside in the UK. Be suspicious of anyone claiming to be from the NHS asking for money or payment information.
5. Online ads and social media scams
There’s a high chance you’ve been targeted by at least one of these scams in the past year.
Action Fraud data shows that the most reported scam were those linked to online shopping and auction sites.
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