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BBC Scam Safe week is here, helping you fight back against the fraudsters from 22 to 28 November 2025.

Fraud is big business. According to UK Finance data, last year £1.17 billion was lost in fraudulent transactions. In more positive news, a further £1.45 billion was prevented from being stolen by the financial services industry. However, those figures only relate to reported fraud. The true impact of scammers is likely to be much higher.

We all need to stay vigilant to fight back against the fraudsters. Yet you may be feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the ways scammers try to target you. Though fraudsters are constantly updating the ways they try to rip us off, the methods they use to get our money or data remain more or less the same.

So if you follow these simple tips and you can avoid the vast majority of scams.

How to beat the scammers

According to the latest statistics, 70% of fraud originates online while the next 16% occurs through telecommunications. So the best way to beat the fraudsters is to be cautious about any email, call or message that asks you to provide personal details, transfer money or click on a link.

Remember anything can be convincingly faked. That includes websites, content and logos. Watch out for unusual messages or links from phone numbers that look like they've come from your friends, relatives, businesses and organisations. Impersonation scams involve communications from fake government-linked 'official' organisations, well known businesses or authority figures like the police.

Ignore the phone call, text, message or WhatsApp and get in touch with the business or organisation through their official telephone number, website or app. Never use the links or numbers that come with the original notification. If the message looks like it's come from someone you know, bear in mind it could be 'spoofed' (using cheap technology to make the name and number of the person or business appear on your phone) or the email or social media platforms might have been hacked.

Email and text fraud works by playing on your insecurities for just long enough for you to make a mistake. Fraudsters may use on topical news stories – like a bank or big business getting hacked, for example – as a way to nudge you to 'update your details'. A particularly cruel variation on this scam is a message saying you've been defrauded. The scam works by panicking you in to clicking on a link to find out more, which turns out to be a scammer's website.

Accommodation scams are becoming more common. Watch out for landlords that offer suspiciously great rental deals on places that don't exist or turn out to belong to someone else. View the property first and only send money when you have verified the landlord's identity and have a lease.

Scams are most devastating when they involve big money. Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud is where you are tricked in to either transferring large amounts of money or handing over your bank details to fraudsters. If you are called by someone claiming to be an authority figure, hang up and call your bank direct or dial 159 – a number from Stop Scams UK that connects you to your bank or other businesses – if you can't find the number.

Your email is one of the most 'hackable' services you have. Your email address will be in the public domain so a fraudster only needs a leaked password and they have full access to your data and contacts. Here's a test for you. Using the 'search' function in your emails, type 'password' or 'passport' and see what information comes up. You may be shocked by what you've emailed to yourself that a scammer can access by doing this: and it only takes them seconds.

Always change all your passwords regularly, use password management services if you worry about remembering them or password generators to create something random. It's also worth going through your emails to delete anything containing your personal data.

If you think you've been defrauded, contact the bank or business asap. Don't forget that you can go to the free Financial Ombudsman if you don't think a financial business has treated you fairly.

Most importantly, speak to older or more vulnerable people that you know or who live nearby and share these tips. Only by working together can we defeat the scammers once and for all.

What's 'spoofing?' – a guide to terms used in scams

There are lots of different and confusing terms for different types of fraud, which makes things unnecessarily complicated. Here's a quick glossary so you know what they mean.

  • Spoofing: This is where fraudsters use a bit of cheap technology to make it look like a phone call or message is from an official business or organisation – or even someone you know.

  • Easy marks: Fraudsters trade lists of people who have fallen victim to fraud who are then contacted again by other fraudsters, sometimes pretending to offer to get your money back for free.

  • Push payment/Courier fraud: Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud is where you are tricked in to either transferring large amounts of money or handing over your bank details by fraudsters pretending to be your bank or the police.

  • Boiler rooms: This is a type of fraud that uses pressure selling to get you to by worthless or non-existing investments or cryptocurrency. The fraudsters often use 'easy marks' lists to target victims of mis-selling or fraud repeatedly.

  • Purchase scams: Fake adverts for retailers, often advertising on legitimate social media websites.

  • QR codes: This is a 'quick response code', a square type of barcode that allows you to scan it with a phone and link to a website or data. Watch out for fake ones stuck over the real codes.

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