Online and phone scams

What are online and phone scams?

Scams usually begin with an unexpected text, call or email. But increasingly fraudulent websites and social media are being used to target people.

If you get a text, call or email you weren’t expecting, and it’s urging you to take action quickly, stop and think before you click on any links or give away any personal information.  

Scammers often pretend to be from a company you know. They do their homework to find out as much about you as they can like details of your investments and personal information.  

Think before doing anything they ask you to do. Scammers send emails or texts asking you to click on a link which can download a virus designed to ‘break in’ and steal personal information like your usernames, passwords, bank account details or your National Insurance number. 

Or, they may take you to a fake form where they ask you to enter information or ask for personal information over the phone.

How to spot online and phone scams

Any of these could mean it’s a scam:

  • Asking you for personal information such as your username, password, credit card number or bank details.

  • On an email your name will generally not be included - it will usually be addressed 'Dear customer' or something similar.

  • Does the message make sense? Is the grammar and spelling correct? Poor English can indicate fraud.

  • There will be a sense of urgency – for example, if you don’t respond within 48 hours, your account will be closed or you will miss out on an investment opportunity.

So that you know an email from us is genuine, we’ll:

  • always greet you personally by using your title, last name 
  • include part, not all, of your policy number or postcode
  • never take you directly to a log in page to enter personal details.  We’ll always take you to a web page that gives you more information before asking you to log on.

Here’s some of the examples we’ve found of fake email addresses that scammers have used to pretend to be us:

EXAMPLE FAKE EMAILS

enquiry@sw-private-client.com

clientenquiry@sw-privateservice.com

newenquiry@sw-application.com 

enquiry@swonboarding.com

How to avoid being scammed

Online

  • Only open attachments or click on links that you were expecting, sent by people you know and trust. Attachments can contain viruses.

  • Don’t e-mail sensitive information.

  • Never disclose your passwords. A good password is a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, and should be changed regularly.

Scammers set up fake websites which are often good believable copies of the real thing. Before you use a website you’re being sent to, look for the following signs that it may be fake:

  • Low quality images or out of date company branding

  • Spelling and grammar mistakes or poorly laid out information

  • Is important information missing? E.g. contact numbers and addresses

  • Broken links – are there links to other parts of the website which, when clicked on, take you to a blank page or don’t take you anywhere at all?

  • Read the small print, is the company authorised by the FCA? Terms and conditions will tell you a lot about the authenticity of a company – whether it’s real or not.

On the phone

We’ll never call you and ask for the following:

  • Full ID details

  • One-time verification code

  • Login details and passwords

Only a fraudster would call and ask you to move money to another account. 

They use a phone number that looks familiar to you, disguising their actual phone number with a number which may look like one from a company you know. 

In a recent case a number with the prefix 0131, the area code for Edinburgh, where we’re based, was used.  We would never call you from a number with an area code like this.  We would also never withhold our number.

How to protect yourself

If you want to be certain a communication from us is genuine, check with a friend or call us. Use a number you trust, or one from our website, not one given to you on an email, text or over the phone.