A very helpful and comprehensive guide to spotting scams, how to protect yourself and what to do if you are caught by a scam is published by the Met
Little Book of Big Scams [pdf]
For more consumer advice including template letters for making complaints, information on your rights and how to contact the Citizen's Advice Consumer Service, click here
Tags for Forum Posts: Citizen's Advice, consumer rights, scams
Good basic advice. There are a few scams that I have come across and am amazed that they fool a lot of people. favourite is the one where you get a phone call purporting to be from Microsoft. They know your name and want you to check your computer. They will then engineer a scenario where you think you have a virus problem. They then fake you into parting with money to fix it. People also seem to feel they need to be polite when being phoned by a stranger (it expressed their own sense of decency) but calls asking you about car insurance, utility bills etc happen regularly. My rule is never to speak to anyone on the phone who I do not know. Do not give any personal details at all to anyone ie DOB, car reg. your name etc. Register with the TPS to remove your number from cold calling companies, which means anyone else is a scammer or just trying to sell you stuff. There is no need to be polite or considerate to people who are happy to interrupt your day and waste your time. Don't even enter into a conversation. When a caller asks 'Is that Mr X, I reply, who did you want to speak to? Don't correct them and give them your name.
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