We at Toffee hate scammers.
Like cybercriminals, they’re often portrayed as skilled mavericks or loveable rogues.
In reality, they’re awful people who think nothing of ruining lives to make a quick buck.
Stealing from organisations is bad enough, but when you’re forcing innocent people into financial ruin, you know you’ve hit rock bottom.
The average cost of a UK scam is just over £1700. With 19 million people in the UK being victims, we see why even a basic scam operation is lucrative.
Scammers often prey on the elderly.
This isn’t because they’re “more gullible” but because they’ve grown up in a different world than ours. A world where being scammed was something that happened in real life, not on the computer or over the phone.
So, how can we protect ourselves from scammers? There are three main ways.
Limitation
No matter how smart we think we are, someone out there is able to scam us.
If it can happen to government officials, it can happen to us. That’s why one of the best ways to protect ourselves is to limit the scams we see.
This could be as simple as using an email provider with a good spam filter. It could also mean being very careful about where we enter our details, so they’re less likely to fall into the hands of a scammer.
For people with landlines, switching to a simple mobile can make a world of difference. Landlines see lots of scam calls because they’re often used by vulnerable people.
Education
By education, we’re not just talking about the technical side.
Scams evolve all the time, and it’s well worth keeping up-to-date on the latest cons. A few minutes spent researching could save us thousands of pounds in the long run.
Natural Suspicion
It’s easy to say we should be naturally suspicious. But human beings can find this difficult, especially when scammers use a strong emotion that’s meant to turn our thinking brains off.
As we say in our scam emails course, it’s always worth taking a step back. Even if a message seems urgent, time spent thinking clearly is never wasted.
Natural suspicion is like training a muscle. It takes time, but with enough practice, it’ll get stronger than ever.
With 95% of hacks caused by workers making mistakes, it’s more important than ever to train our employees. That’s why we made Toffee; a fun, all-in-one training package designed with you in mind.
