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I think I’m quite good at warning others of potential scams and fraudsters & always check on my mum to make sure she knows what to be aware of. I don’t know anyone personally who has been victim of fraud yet but have read plenty of horror stories to make me very wary!

I kept getting calls claiming to be from my broadband provider when they are not, and calls claiming to be from my bank asking questions they shouldn't ask, and when i researcheed the numbers online other people had complained that scammers were hacking into the banks legitamate telephone numbers to scam customers, which is something the bank should have cracked down on. So please be aware of this and my advice is if you ever get a call claiming to be your bank or any other service provider asking for your personal details, then end the call and ring up your legitamate service providers to check whether they were trying to contact you and if not report the incident to them.

It's very worrying when there are so many scams going around, I'm always reminding my mom and dad about being wary about answering the door and phone to people

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Always be vigilant, question everything. That's my motto.

I remember driving in the car and hearing on the radio 'thousands of people have overpaid tax and would be due a rebate' during the news bulletin. When I got back to my computer, there was an email there from 'HMRC' saying 'you are due a tax refund, click here to claim'.

I thought that was particularly sneaky - striking at the right time to catch people who might let their guard down having heard it on the news.

Obviously I didn't click on it, but I fear they would have got some people with the timing of that one.

Scammers are getting so clever now.
I had a problem with Barclaycard but they were really good and texted me to let me know. Being suspicious I didn't reply to the text but phoned the number on my card.
The fraudster was being sneaky and had tried to purchase 2 very small amounts. B/card realised this was unusual activity and alerted me. They said this is often the way they do it. If they get away with the small purchases they then go on to bigger ones.

I had a phone call from some company or other offering me a free sky dish if I took part in an information survey. I was suspicious but being at a loose end decided to play along with them. Gave the required info.. (yeah right), and at the end of the call they asked for my card details in order to send out the "free "dish. I told them I'd just get my card. After a minute or so I went back and asked how they were going to transport the free fish, (animal welfare you know), before I gave them the card info. The guy said Madam, I said a free dish, to which I replied can I have a voucher for a hamster or kitten instead? He hung up can't think why ?

I had a phone call from some company or other offering me a free sky dish if I took part in an information survey. I was suspicious but being at a loose end decided to play along with them. Gave the required info.. (yeah right), and at the end of the call they asked for my card details in order to send out the "free "dish. I told them I'd just get my card. After a minute or so I went back and asked how they were going to transport the free fish, (animal welfare you know), before I gave them the card info. The guy said Madam, I said a free dish, to which I replied can I have a voucher for a hamster or kitten instead? He hung up can't think why ?

I had a phone call from some company or other offering me a free sky dish if I took part in an information survey. I was suspicious but being at a loose end decided to play along with them. Gave the required info.. (yeah right), and at the end of the call they asked for my card details in order to send out the "free "dish. I told them I'd just get my card. After a minute or so I went back and asked how they were going to transport the free fish, (animal welfare you know), before I gave them the card info. The guy said Madam, I said a free dish, to which I replied can I have a voucher for a hamster or kitten instead? He hung up can't think why ?

I had a phone call from some company or other offering me a free sky dish if I took part in an information survey. I was suspicious but being at a loose end decided to play along with them. Gave the required info.. (yeah right), and at the end of the call they asked for my card details in order to send out the "free "dish. I told them I'd just get my card. After a minute or so I went back and asked how they were going to transport the free fish, (animal welfare you know), before I gave them the card info. The guy said Madam, I said a free dish, to which I replied can I have a voucher for a hamster or kitten instead? He hung up can't think why ?

I had a phone call from some company or other offering me a free sky dish if I took part in an information survey. I was suspicious but being at a loose end decided to play along with them. Gave the required info.. (yeah right), and at the end of the call they asked for my card details in order to send out the "free "dish. I told them I'd just get my card. After a minute or so I went back and asked how they were going to transport the free fish, (animal welfare you know), before I gave them the card info. The guy said Madam, I said a free dish, to which I replied can I have a voucher for a hamster or kitten instead? He hung up can't think why ?

Don't click links in emails. If an email seems suspicious, Google "phishing" and the name of your email provider, and you should be able to find an email address to forward the email to, or another way of reporting it as dodgy.

Fortunately my bank is really good with security, but I am always careful, will never use a site without it being 'https', as I never clonk a link in an email unless I was actually expecting it but will instead just delete it. I don't answer calls form random numbers ringing me enless expecting a call, but if I do happen to answer it to someone I never give any info away to them, and I am incredibly careful over answering any questions. Generally my gut instinct is pretty good at feeling if something isn't right or safe for me to be bothering with it and will ignore it if alarm bells are going off.

Always be wary of suspicious looking emails, if in doubt do not open, delete

If I get what looks like a dodgy email, I block both sender and sender's domain and then delete it.

My debit card was cloned a few years ago. I still don’t know where. They used it to pay for couriers in London to the tune of £1000. My bank usually notices unusual activity but not in this particular case. It was only when I saw my statement that it came to light. Fortunately I got all the money back and a new card. I now have a purse with a special lining so that my card can’t be scanned by anyone. The new contactless cards are quite vulnerable to this type of crime.

My husband had his card cloned when we were in Malta 15 years ago. The restaurant had taken our card out of sight and seemed to be an awful long time processing it. We didn't know until a week or two later when 2 transactions for items in Brazil costing £400 each made a huge dent in my hubby's account. The bank froze the account once we reported it and it took weeks to get the money back. We learned never to let a bank card out of our sight at any time the hard way. We are a lot more wary now.

I've had my post intercepted, driving license stolen, and have repeatedly told my previous bank not to send chequebooks and bank cards through the post. They ignored me. So I closed the account and opened with another bank that listens to me. I get my bank cards from the branch now. It was a gang who was operating in my area. Thankfully they were caught. I will say this, be vigilant, and on your guard at all times!

When receiving emails that look suspicious - check the address from where it's been sent by drafting a reply - you'll soon see if it is from an official email address from who they are claiming to be from.

My father was scammed by clicking through on an email promising a "free sample" of a miracle skin cream. The email asked him to supply debit card details to cover the postage cost, which unfortunately he did. He did notice the small print however which said a further £30 would be taken each month for the delivery of subsequent pots of cream! We got in touch with the bank on his behalf after two payments had been taken (and no cream turned) and could not contact anyone at this mysterious company. The bank managed to stop the payments and refunded under the charge back scheme. Not sure others would be so lucky... Beware "free" samples which often end up extremely costly Trogan Horses!

Hover over email addresses and it shows you the scam email address underneath.

Never speak about financial /services over the phone unless you can verify the call, I always call them or deal over the internet.
Emails can often be hard to tell whether fake or real

I've been setting before with mobile phone bills and so now have a zero credit applied to my contract phone and my son's. This means that all of our standard package contents (free calls, texts and data) are all on and work fine. Anything else that costs even a penny fails to connect or send.

I was the unfortunate victim of a phone scam from 'BT'!! The lovely chatty girl knew all my details and advised me that my monthly direct debit had not gone through for the past 2 months and if not settled immediately, my service would be stopped. Instead of doing the sensible thing and checking my bank statement (which I did after the event) I gave her my bank details and she informed me that £29 would be taken and all would be well.
The next day at 9am I received a text message from my bank asking if I recognised a particular payment. I didn't and called them back. At this point I did belatedly check my bank statement to see that the regular payments to BT had been made in the previous months - too late.
It turned out that in 12 hours £2500 was taken from my account spread over various internet shopping sprees in Australia, France, Singapore and UK.
The bank account used was our housekeeping account which was then overdrawn and the vision of all our direct debits being returned was traumatic to say the least.
After a dreadful week of phoning, stopping my card, reinstating a new card and general panic, I received a form from the bank's fraud department listing the fraudulent payments and asking me to confirm that they were indeed not mine. 2 weeks later the bank confirmed that the £2500 had been credited back into my account and all was well. Whew.........
I thought I was a savvy 72 year old - I am now wiser but still cringe when I remember what I did. Writing this brings it all back.