Financial Crime Talk

Guest speaker at this week’s meeting was club member, Martin King. Martin attended a Financial Crime Summit in London earlier this year and he fascinated his audience as he narrated scams that have one common feature - trying to get your personal details.  His talk on a this really topical subject was both worrying and interesting but hopefully helped to keep members safer. 

Most scams are phishing, vishing and smishing. All are about trying to obtain your personal details.

 * Phishing is usually done by emails that say click on this link to reset your password, refund, reward etc to claim.

 *Vishing is voice phishing, people phoning you pretending to be from your bank or someone you do business with.

 *Smishing is sms messages asking you to reply with your personal details and / or asking you to phone a number. Don’t use a phone number that gets sent to you. 

What to look out for

 - poor grammar, poor graphics 

- don’t click on links sent to you 

- be wary of “Dear Customer” 

- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! 

Most scams play on your emotions

* When you move house, make sure that you re-direct your mail

* Make sure you shred your personal documents

* No bank will ever ask you for your full pin or password, they might ask for random numbers

* Watch standing orders and conveyance frauds asking you to change account number

* ‘Internet providers’ phoning up saying that they need remote access to your computer 

* Don’t phone back using the same phone

* Online dating fraud, longer term relationship building to get money off people