When banking scams are discussed in the media, why are they not more precise about the details?

joep2

Plenty of youtubers expose scams and I find them more educational. E.g: Kitboga, Jim Browning, Scammer Payback, etc.

Murmansk

The Scam Interceptors programmes on BBC TV were first screened at about 10am and I seem to remember there were about 14 of them, they were then repeated in the early evening. I'd have thought the first screening time might have been very suited to those who could be thought to be at most risk ie the elderly and non-tech savvy. 

Having watched every one of them I think they can be summed up as don't trust anyone that calls you, don't ever dream of moving money to a safe account and don't click on links in emails plus don't let anyone take over your computer or phone remotely. 

Bigwheels1111

Simple, trust no one.

Job done.

Works for me.

Albermarle

Murmansk said:

The Scam Interceptors programmes on BBC TV were first screened at about 10am and I seem to remember there were about 14 of them, they were then repeated in the early evening. I'd have thought the first screening time might have been very suited to those who could be thought to be at most risk ie the elderly and non-tech savvy. 

Having watched every one of them I think they can be summed up as don't trust anyone that calls you, don't ever dream of moving money to a safe account and don't click on links in emails plus don't let anyone take over your computer or phone remotely. 

I'd have thought the first screening time might have been very suited to those who could be thought to be at most risk ie the elderly and non-tech savvy. 

You would hope so and hopefully it will prevent some scams. However unfortunately it seems many people just do not watch anything informative. Preferring to focus on family issues, football, celebrities, reality TV etc  Plus in general the level of ignorance about anything to do with money, banks etc is a big problem. 

Shylock_249

When I get what I belive to be a phishing/scam phone call, I just say "I'm sorry, you've got the local police station would you like to speak to the Chief Superintendent", that usually ends the conversation.

FIREDreamer

joep2 said:

Plenty of youtubers expose scams and I find them more educational. E.g: Kitboga, Jim Browning, Scammer Payback, etc.

Scammer Revolts is good too, really winds these scumbags up and deletes their computer files. 🤣🤣🤣

eskbanker

eskbanker said:

solidpro said:

Slightly OT, but I work in telecoms and about 10 years ago I spotted how the lack of regulation over caller ID spoofing and, infact a complete ignorance of how that would be used outside our borders to target people and I tried to highlight it to BBC's moneybox a few times when they started to mention it. They never replied.

Everyone always seemed to trust caller ID like it was absolute and final when it was anything but. I could call anyone presenting the call as their wife, dead father, bank or the local police station and nobody seemed to care. People are *slightly* more educated now, but trust in caller ID seems to be one of the cornerstones of the last 10 years of scamming people over the internet and phone. It's still completely unregulared and all the large tier 1 carriers of phone traffic do not enforce anything over caller ID, although it's starting to happen in other countries - particularly China and the USA.

The industry has been working on it for years though, with next year's shift away from analogue enabling much greater control, and various interim processes before that:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2022/crackdown-on-fake-number-fraud

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/policy/tackling-scam-calls-and-texts

Spoke too soon, the analogue switch-off now postponed until 2027 🙄

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-refines-its-digital-switchover-programme-for-the-uks-full-fibre-future/

Teapot55

eskbanker said:

eskbanker said:

solidpro said:

Slightly OT, but I work in telecoms and about 10 years ago I spotted how the lack of regulation over caller ID spoofing and, infact a complete ignorance of how that would be used outside our borders to target people and I tried to highlight it to BBC's moneybox a few times when they started to mention it. They never replied.

Everyone always seemed to trust caller ID like it was absolute and final when it was anything but. I could call anyone presenting the call as their wife, dead father, bank or the local police station and nobody seemed to care. People are *slightly* more educated now, but trust in caller ID seems to be one of the cornerstones of the last 10 years of scamming people over the internet and phone. It's still completely unregulared and all the large tier 1 carriers of phone traffic do not enforce anything over caller ID, although it's starting to happen in other countries - particularly China and the USA.

The industry has been working on it for years though, with next year's shift away from analogue enabling much greater control, and various interim processes before that:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2022/crackdown-on-fake-number-fraud

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/policy/tackling-scam-calls-and-texts

Spoke too soon, the analogue switch-off now postponed until 2027 🙄

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-refines-its-digital-switchover-programme-for-the-uks-full-fibre-future/

@eskbanker that last link you’ve provided is very informative and interesting! You might want to put that in a post separate from the current one - it deserves to be highlighted 😊

redpete

I've found most newspaper and TV reports to be quite detailed about what happens. Essentially someone phones pretending to be from the bank or police and spins a tale that your account is at risk and you need to transfer your money to another account. Another method is to encourage you to download something or open up your PC so that they can help sort out a problem; there is no problem until you've done this and once in they can steal IDs and passwords. There are of course variations and subtleties but the message is don't trust anyone who phones out of the blue and encourages you to transfer money anywhere or give access to your PC.