This is very popular scam on the Facebook Marketplace right now. Essentially new products are advertised for under £100 (to avoid being investigated further by the banks etc). When you reach out to them, they will tell you it’s all legitimate and you need to purchase from a website. If you buy the item nothing arrives and the seller closes their Facebook account down leaving you out of pocket.

Advice: If it is too good to be true then it usually is fake. Reach out to them and if they ask you to purchase online then ask for the official company details and contact number. If they avoid providing these essential details then its usually a scam. To protect others from this scam please report the post and seller so that they can be removed.

When you sell and item on Facebook or Gumtree you are contacted by a potential buyer but they want to send a courier who will pay cash and collect. If you agree to this the next thing, they will ask you to pay for the postage/insurance and they will add the value to the amount the courier will bring. You have to pay the postage on an unofficial website, if a courier does arrive to collect the item, they won’t have the cash you were promised.

Advice: We have yet to find an official courier that offers a cash paid-on-collection option! Their aim is just to grab some cash and contact details from you, some are even brazen enough to actually pay for a collection in the hopes you will just hand it over!

Often these puzzles are posted to the many Facebook groups and those who worked it out will be contacted via DM and asked to pay a fee to receive the prize or click a link to claim it. Nothing will arrive once you have paid the fee or the link you are directed to want you to fill in lots of personal details to be used in other scams.

Advice: Competitions and giveaways are heavily regulated in the UK so any real competitions must declare who the operator is when the draw is and display the prize breakdowns. If you cannot find this information then it’s typically a scam. Also ASDA won’t be giving away £100 to the first person who can spot a missing letter from the alphabet.

With the cost of living increasing many people are looking to earn extra cash in their spare time. Scammers are exploiting this right now in two main ways: 1. To assist them in selling counterfeit or knock off goods where you take all the risks selling them and 2. To merely to get all your personal information to be sold on and used in other scams.

Advice: If you are looking for extra income and come across these adverts then do as much background research as possible before giving over your personal details. Who are they? are they a proper business? are the products real? what happens if a customer complains? how will the income be paid? If it is real then all this information should be made available right at the start of the conversation.

A huge effort is being made by hackers to get into Facebook accounts (other websites too), and once in they proceed to send out messages to your friends asking for financial help and money to be transferred either via bank or a paypal.

Advice: If a family member or friend reaches out to you asking for financial help via social media or even sms messages then call or speak to them through another channel that you know they use (such as Whatsapp). Do not reply or call any number they provide.

You are browsing the internet when all of a sudden your screen changes to a warning that your computer is infected and you need to call Microsoft for support. The number on the screen is called and answered by a human who then asks to take remote control of your computer to fix it. Once connected they will then say they need £50 to fix it and bring up a payment screen for you to enter your credit card details.

Advice: If you press F11 when you see the first screen you can see its just a fake website and the tab can be closed as normal.

This is very popular scam on the Facebook Marketplace right now. Essentially new products are advertised for under £100 (to avoid being investigated further by the banks etc). When you reach out to them, they will tell you it’s all legitimate and you need to purchase from a website. If you buy the item nothing arrives and the seller closes their Facebook account down leaving you out of pocket.

Advice: If it is too good to be true then it usually is fake. Reach out to them and if they ask you to purchase online then ask for the official company details and contact number. If they avoid providing these essential details then its usually a scam. To protect others from this scam please report the post and seller so that they can be removed.

When you sell and item on Facebook or Gumtree you are contacted by a potential buyer but they want to send a courier who will pay cash and collect. If you agree to this the next thing, they will ask you to pay for the postage/insurance and they will add the value to the amount the courier will bring. You have to pay the postage on an unofficial website, if a courier does arrive to collect the item, they won’t have the cash you were promised.

Advice: We have yet to find an official courier that offers a cash paid-on-collection option! Their aim is just to grab some cash and contact details from you, some are even brazen enough to actually pay for a collection in the hopes you will just hand it over!

Often these puzzles are posted to the many Facebook groups and those who worked it out will be contacted via DM and asked to pay a fee to receive the prize or click a link to claim it. Nothing will arrive once you have paid the fee or the link you are directed to want you to fill in lots of personal details to be used in other scams.

Advice: Competitions and giveaways are heavily regulated in the UK so any real competitions must declare who the operator is when the draw is and display the prize breakdowns. If you cannot find this information then it’s typically a scam. Also ASDA won’t be giving away £100 to the first person who can spot a missing letter from the alphabet.

With the cost of living increasing many people are looking to earn extra cash in their spare time. Scammers are exploiting this right now in two main ways: 1. To assist them in selling counterfeit or knock off goods where you take all the risks selling them and 2. To merely to get all your personal information to be sold on and used in other scams.

Advice: If you are looking for extra income and come across these adverts then do as much background research as possible before giving over your personal details. Who are they? are they a proper business? are the products real? what happens if a customer complains? how will the income be paid? If it is real then all this information should be made available right at the start of the conversation.

A huge effort is being made by hackers to get into Facebook accounts (other websites too), and once in they proceed to send out messages to your friends asking for financial help and money to be transferred either via bank or a paypal.

Advice: If a family member or friend reaches out to you asking for financial help via social media or even sms messages then call or speak to them through another channel that you know they use (such as Whatsapp). Do not reply or call any number they provide.

You are browsing the internet when all of a sudden your screen changes to a warning that your computer is infected and you need to call Microsoft for support. The number on the screen is called and answered by a human who then asks to take remote control of your computer to fix it. Once connected they will then say they need £50 to fix it and bring up a payment screen for you to enter your credit card details.

Advice: If you press F11 when you see the first screen you can see its just a fake website and the tab can be closed as normal.