Stay Safe Online – Spam or Scam?

It can be to tell the difference between contact from a legitimate company or an attempted scam.

Scammers are increasingly taking advantage of smartphones and making it increasingly difficult to tell the difference between messages from legitimate companies and attempted scams.

Using identity masking technology scammers can make it look like a legitimate organisation is contacting you via text or a messaging app by changing the name displayed as the sender. This is ‘number spoofing’.

Find out more about how to spot a scam message:

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-spot-a-messaging-scam

Sending unsolicited text messages is illegal. You can report them to the Information Commissioner’s Office:  https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/nuisance-calls/

Did you know you can report spam texts directly to your mobile phone provider free of charge by forwarding the text message to 7726.

Never respond to spam texts as this will just confirm that your number is live and only reply ‘STOP’ if you are sure of the identity of the sender.

Did you know you can register mobile numbers as well as landlines with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) free of charge.  Cold calls to registered numbers are illegal.