Northern Ireland has been revealed as the worst affected area in the UK for phone scams, according to new research.
The cost of scams in Northern Ireland was significantly higher than in any other area of the UK - on average, each phone scam was costing the victim £897.
According to research from business broadband experts at Bionic, who analysed data from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and Action Fraud which unveiled that Northern Ireland received the fifth highest total losses from phone scams in the last 13 months. The country lost £63,700 in scams since May 2021, with 71 reported scams in Belfast.
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Broadband scams were the most popular type of scams in Northern Ireland overall and the top three most targeted postcodes for phone scams were BT14, with 30 scams, and BT38 and BT6 , which had reported 20 scams respectively across the last 13 months.
Les Roberts, Content Manager at Bionic has provided some advice on how we can better protect ourselves from scams.
He said: “The majority of malicious phone calls involve a scammer contacting you first, posing as someone else. These can be anyone from government departments, banks, retailers and more. It’s highly unlikely that legitimate organisations would contact you and ask for sensitive information if you’re not expecting them to.
“It’s important to discuss any big decisions with friends, family or advisors. If the person on the other line is asking you to keep it a secret and not get anyone else involved, this is a tactic to stop you from seeking any advice or support that you might need.”
“As soon as you know you’ve been a victim of a scam, contact your bank or credit card company immediately. Some online banking apps allow you to freeze cards quickly from there, so do this first if possible, just in case there’s a wait time to get through to your bank. Depending on the severity of the situation, some banks may choose to either; freeze any cards, or cancel them and replace them with new ones.
"Letting your bank know about the scammers means they’ll be able to monitor your account for any suspicious activity and put a temporary block on your account for money going out."
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