3 phone scams to watch out for right now

The average person in the UK receives eight scam calls a month, according to research carried out by Nationwide. 

Some of the most common phone scams – also known as vishing scams – impersonate your bank in a bid to convince you that your account has been compromised. The scammer will then offer to 'help' you secure your money by transferring it to a 'safe' account.

In a bid to combat bank impersonation scams, Nationwide has become the latest bank to launch its own caller verification service. Nationwide's 'Call Checker' allows its customers to verify whether they’re on the phone with the bank during calls. This new feature is integrated into Nationwide’s app.

But any cold call should be treated with extreme caution, as phone scams can be incredibly convincing. These scammers aim to rob you of your personal and financial data, either immediately or in the near future.

Below, we take a look at three of the biggest scams currently doing the rounds and how to stay safe.

Binance scam message

Scammers are impersonating the cryptocurrency exchange company, Binance. Google searches for this scam have spiked over the past week.

The scam starts with an unsolicited text message, one example is a message sent from a shortcode number '62884'. 

The message tells you that there has been an unauthorised login attempt on your account from a different country, such as Iran and Romania.

Other versions of this scam message give you a withdrawal or verification code or tell you that there has been a large unauthorised transaction on your account.

What all of them have in common is that they give you a number to call if the information in the text is unfamiliar. Calling the number given in one of these texts is dangerous. You risk speaking to a scammer who will attempt to coax you into revealing your personal and financial information under false pretences.

Heathrow scam call

Callers claiming to be police officers from 'Heathrow Police Station' tell you that someone has been arrested at Heathrow airport and had stolen personal documents on them, including something related to you, such as a driving licence.

The call comes from a private number and, according to reports, the caller may know your name and birthday. These scams often seem convincing because the fraudster often already has some data on you, which they’ve probably obtained through a data breach.

The caller provides a case number and sometimes a badge number, making the call seem legitimate. Some recipients mentioned the caller speaking about specific crypto or financial companies that the criminal may have been investing in using your details. This raises concerns about potential identity theft.

This scam typically concludes with you receiving another call from the same scammer, posing as a bank or other financial company, claiming that your identity has been used to open an account. The aim is to get more of your personal details.

Home emergency cover 

Reports on Who Called Me, the phone number lookup website, detail dodgy calls regarding home plumbing services and other emergency cover.

One report claims the caller claimed to be a plumbing insurer. Other reports say the caller claims to be from a water company, such as Anglian Water or Welsh Water, and their home emergency plumbing had come to an end. 

Dodgy calls like these try to get you to reveal personal and financial information by convincing you to buy or upgrade a service which you don’t have or require.