Keeping yourself safe from fraud
All over the world, there are people who try to trick others into giving away their personal information and bank details. Anyone can be a victim of this, and it can be very difficult to tell whether communication is genuine. It can be helpful to ask yourself these questions when you are being contact for information:
- Are they saying you are in trouble?
- Are they asking for personal information?
- Does it sound too good to be true?
It is important to be wary of these fraudulent situations, such as pretending to be from a legitimate company or government correspondence, to prevent identity theft, loss of money, and other potential consequences.
If you are not sure if an email, telephone call, or any other type of contact is genuine, please contact the International Student Advisory team or the Reading Students Union Money Advisers.
What should I do if I think I have been a victim of fraud?
- Take 5 and tell 2 – In any scenario where you are unsure about the communication you have received, take 5 minutes away from it to think about what is being asked of you and tell 2 people about it. Some fraudsters may ask you to cut contact with family and friends. If you ever receive a text message, phone call, email or other form of contact that is unusual or doesn’t feel right, make sure you speak to a friend, family member or staff member.
- If you are unsure of the situation, do not provide them with any information, hang up and contact the International Student Advisory Team who support all students with fraud concerns and tell them what happened, If out of hours (gone past 5 pm) contact Action Fraud: 0300 123 2040
- If you have given away your card details, you will need to contact your bank and cancel your card as soon as possible.
If you’ve received a phone call or message, but you haven’t lost money, you can easily report it by forwarding the messages, free of charge, to 7726.
If you have received a suspicious email that you’re not quite sure about, you can forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk. For more information on how to report suspicious messages and emails please visit the Gov.uk Reporting Fraud Webpages.
For more information and support
- Action Fraud: Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, where you should report fraud if you have been scammed, defrauded or experienced cybercrime.
- Gov: UK Government information
This page gives you advice on protecting yourself from tricks and scams the Home Office is aware of.
- Thames Valley Police is one of the 43 police forces in England and Wales and is the largest non-metropolitan force. It covers over 2,200 square miles and three counties: Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
- Blackbullion offers numerous educational courses to help you better handle your finances while at University,
Fraud Awareness
Fraud and Scam: A situation where a person tricks/ deceives/ pretends to be someone else or a company to gain money in a dishonest way. Taking advantage of someone’s vulnerability.
Phishing: Usually in the form of an email, where it will ask for you to log into your account through a fake link (which is made to look real). It could also ask for bank card information by getting you to type your bank details into an email or the link provided. Remember, these criminals have ways to make emails appear like they are coming from genuine companies.
Cybercrime: A mixture of different crimes which take place online. For instance, pretending to be a legitimate website, your computer being hacked, stolen password and account information.
Vishing: Vishing usually happen during a phone call, where the person calling tries to get you to share personal or account information, passwords and/or bank details. Please be aware, that these fraudsters can make the caller ID show to be coming from a contact or different number from where they are actually calling from.
Smishing: In the form of a text message pretending to be a legitimate reputable company, to gain your personal information or bank information.
Money Mules: A Money Mule is where you let someone else use your bank account to send money into. Many criminals target their recruitment of money mules at universities or colleges – either online, in person or via friends and family. By using money mules, criminals try to ensure that the consequences hit the mule instead of them. Money mules usually get recruited because they get a cut of the stolen money. This means they are involved in money laundering. This is a serious criminal offence, with a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. HM Revenue and Customs have provided more information on this and what you can do to protect yourself from becoming involved.
Virtual kidnapping ransom scam: If you are a Chinese international student, you may be at risk of targeted scams which are affecting Chinese students across universities. Some of these scams can be elaborate and very distressing. Make sure you stay aware of the virtual kidnapping ransom scam which is becoming more prevalent.
Harassment: Harassment is not a type of fraud; however, sometimes it is linked to a fraud situation. Harassment is when someone you know, or a stranger behaves badly towards you which makes you feel intimated/humiliated or threatened. Sometimes people may use your conversation with them/ steal your identity/ Photos of you or use information against you to gain something. If they use something against you which may harm you, this is called blackmail. The University takes these situations very seriously and have a number of teams to help support you. You can report such incidents to #NeverOK.