Take Five Campaign
Criminals are experts at impersonating people and organisations. They spend hours researching you for their ‘scams’. Following are some helpful hints and tips to try and keep you safe from these criminals, however we advise the following from the ‘Take Five’ national campaign.
The Take Five campaign offers impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from Fraud and is backed by His Majesty’s Government. The campaign is delivered with and through a vast range of partners in the UK payments industry, financial services firms, law enforcement agencies, telecommunication providers, commercial, public and third sector organisations.
The Take Five campaign advises we take the following steps:
Stop
Taking a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe.
Challenge
Could it be fake? It’s okay to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you.
Protect
Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve become a victim of a fraud or ‘scam’. Then report it to action fraud.
Find out more at takefive-stopfraud.org.uk
Useful Links
Links to other economic crime protect, prepare, and prevent information:
SCAM ‘What does the word mean to you’
The definition of the word scam is ‘a dishonest scheme, a fraud, swindle, racket, trick or diddle.’ With the term ‘swindler’ being ‘a man who scams old pensioners out of their savings.’
The language used around scams such as ‘trick’ and ‘diddle’ highlight the lack of seriousness connected to this type of offence and a lack of sensitivity to the victims.
However, the reality is that scams have a significant impact on victims and with many fraud offences being conducted by organised crime groups to fund their criminal activity, the scale of this crime is truly staggering.
This publication, designed with expert advice from Dr Elisabeth Carter, has been produced to help you recognise the tactics used by the criminals who commit these crimes and the serious impact these crimes can have on the victims.
Want to learn about the threat and risk of Fraud to yourself or your business/organisation? Ask the RECCC to speak to you, your staff or request CPD around Financial Wellbeing, Insider threat, Risk Management, Money Laundering and other Economic Crime related issues.
Get in touch at reccc@durham.pnn.police.uk
