It was recently reported that the government was planning to send emergency alerts to members of the general public on their mobile phones and tablets on Sunday 7 September.
Consequently, in what was a trial run by the government for potential future emergencies, all mobile phones buzzed at 3pm that day to test the emergency alerts, which give people advice on how to stay safe if danger is nearby.
Unfortunately, while this is all above board and harmless, scammers have been trying to take advantage of the situation.
Scammers prey more during big events
Which? has reported that fake ‘government’ emails related to the Emergency Alerts test that took place on 7 September have been circulating.
Which? has stated that, “the worryingly convincing emails appear to come from ‘Government Digital Services’ and recipients may be easily tricked into clicking a malicious link to complete a survey about the recent test”.
Scammers will often try to hijack a big news event, so it’s not surprising that the recent Emergency Alerts test has led to a number of scams.
Which? emphasises that, “these emails are not genuine and recipients shouldn’t click on any links”.
Here Which? explains what these emails look like, what you should do if you’ve clicked a malicious link and how to spot and report scam emails.
4 helpful tools to beat scams
Which? has also outlined four tools which can help you to beat the scammers:
1: Domain check
Domain check is the name given to the process of verifying the ownership and availability of a domain name. It is said that “this can be done through various services that perform a Whois lookup, which provides information about the domain’s registration status”, ownership, and other details.
Which? argues that scammers are very good at creating convincing-looking websites appearing to belong to genuine businesses. In many cases, these are said to be “copycats of banks, big name retailers and other trusted organisations. In others, they create a completely fictitious business which claims to have been around for years”.
Which? has recommended that to beat the scammers you need to check the domain and that to do this you, “simply input the website address into the domain checker’s search bar. This takes seconds to perform and could prevent you from being tricked into sharing your personal and payment details with a fraudster.”
2: Reverse image search
It has been noted that many different search engines have a reverse image search as a tool on them and that this allows people to use images as the search topic rather than words or phrases (or even whole sentences). Additionally, it is noted that, “no search terms are necessary with this tool, and it removes the need for people to guess at search terms that may or may not work”.
Which? has warned that scammers are known to often use images which have been copied from other websites. This especially happens in online shopping scams, where the scammers copy listings from legitimate sellers or sites. They may also create bogus profiles by stealing social media images from genuine users.
Which? says that, “reverse image search tools such as Google Images and TinEye allow you to upload an image or paste in its URL to see where else it has appeared online. If an image has been used by multiple unrelated businesses or individuals, that could be a sign of deception. Similarly, if an image claims to show a named individual (for example, a company representative) but turns out to be a generic stock image, that should raise your suspicions”.
3: The FCA register
The Financial Conduct Authority says on their website. that nearly all financial service activities in this country have to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
They go to say that, “you can search our Register for firms and individuals and the activities firms have permissions for. Using an authorised firm, with the correct permissions, will greatly reduce the risk of harm. It won’t remove all risk. The Register does not confirm whether the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) or Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) protection will definitely apply if something goes wrong”.
Which? recommends that if you are offered a seemingly wonderful investment or an out of this world savings rate, you should make sure that you check the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) financial services register and its warning list before parting with your money. Which? recommend you not to take the risk before checking them out, even if you think you’re dealing with a well-known financial firm.
For more on the Financial Conduct Authority click here.
4: Which? scam alerts
Finally, Which? also advises people to sign up to their scam alerts, which they have issued regularly since 2020.
You can sign up for emails from Which? here.
The scam alert is also available on WhatsApp found here.
To sign up for scam alerts on Facebook please click here.
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