No jargon, no scare tactics — just plain-English advice to help you spot scams, phishing texts, and fake phone calls before they cost you anything.
No bank, government department, or courier service will ever ask for your PIN or password over the phone or in a text message. If someone does, it's a scam — every time.
Scams work by creating panic so you act before you think. A real problem will still be a problem in ten minutes — take your time and check first.
If someone rings claiming to be from your bank or phone provider, hang up and call the number on your card, a past bill, or the official website — not a number they give you.
These can be faked to look like your bank or a family member. Just because a call or text looks official doesn't mean it is.
Talk to a family member or friend before paying or transferring money to someone you haven't met in person. A second opinion can catch a scam before it costs you.
Especially banking and email — so if one password is stolen, it doesn't open everything else. Our free Passphrase Generator can help you create one that's easy to remember.
Holiday dates, daily routines, or personal details on Facebook can be used by scammers to build fake trust or work out when your house is empty.
Prize wins, unexpected tax refunds, or investment tips out of the blue are classic scam lines. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Report anything suspicious using your country's scam-reporting contacts below — it's free, confidential, and helps protect others too.
You're allowed to say no, hang up, or delete a message. A genuine caller or organisation will never be upset that you double-checked first.
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Scams targeting adults and seniors keep getting more convincing — fake bank calls, courier text scams, and investment schemes cost people millions of dollars every year. This page is here to help, in plain language, with no jargon and no judgement. If you'd like more tools, try our free Password Strength Checker or share our Kids with the grandchildren.
The scams that lose people the most money are not the obvious ones. They are patient, well-researched impersonations that arrive at a plausible moment and ask for something that sounds reasonable.
A call, apparently from your bank's real number — caller ID is trivial to falsify — warning of fraud on your account. You are asked to move money to a "safe account", to read out a code, or to install software so they can help. All three are the fraud. No bank has a safe account. No bank asks for codes. No bank needs remote access to your computer. Hang up and call the number on the back of your card, from a different phone if you can.
An email arrives, in an existing thread, saying bank details have changed. It often comes from a real compromised mailbox, so there is nothing technically suspicious about it. The defence is process: verify every change of payment details by phoning a number you already had, never one from the email. This one rule prevents most of these losses.
A distressed call from a family member's voice, needing money urgently, with instructions not to tell anyone else. The voice can be cloned from a short social media clip. Hang up and call them back on the number already in your phone, and agree a family check word before you ever need it.
Often introduced through a relationship built over weeks, on a platform that shows convincing growing returns. Withdrawals are blocked by fees and taxes that never end. Guaranteed returns do not exist, pressure to act quickly is a warning sign, and any platform found through a message rather than a regulator's register should be treated as fictional.
A pop-up, a call, or a search advert claiming your computer is infected. The aim is remote access, from which they take passwords, empty accounts, and sometimes stage fake refunds that convince you to send money back. No legitimate company monitors your computer and phones you about it.
Verify through a channel you chose, not the one that contacted you. Hang up and dial the number on your card. Open the bank's app rather than the link. Ring your son on the number in your contacts. Type the company's address yourself.
This works because it does not require you to spot anything. It does not matter how professional the caller sounds, how accurate the voice is, or what number appears on your screen. If verification runs through a channel the fraudster does not control, the attack fails.
Expect pressure when you do it. Urgency, secrecy, and warnings not to hang up are not incidental to these scams — they are the mechanism. Treat them as confirmation rather than as reasons to comply.
Frame it as something everybody is dealing with, because it is. "These calls have got so good that we've all agreed a word in our family" works far better than advice that implies they are an easy target. Most older people are not naive; they are being targeted by professionals using techniques designed to defeat anyone.
Make sure they know that hanging up is always acceptable, that no legitimate organisation will be offended, and that calling you to check is never a nuisance. Then answer when they call. The people who lose money are very often the ones who felt they had nobody to ask.
No. There is no such thing. Any call, text or email asking you to transfer money to protect it is fraud, without exception. Hang up and call the number on the back of your card.
No. Caller ID is easily falsified, and fraudsters routinely display the genuine number of the organisation they are impersonating. Always hang up and call back on a number you look up yourself.
Contact the organisation through a channel you chose — their app, their published phone number, or by typing their address yourself. Never use contact details supplied in the message.
Present it as a family-wide arrangement rather than advice aimed at them, give a concrete example of the scam, and agree a check word together. Make clear that calling you to check something is never a bother.
You do not have to, but you should never act on an unexpected call that creates urgency. Take the information, end the call, and verify independently before doing anything with money or codes.