Protect Yourself from Financial Fraud and Scams

Staying safe from fraud and scams

Financial fraud is on the rise, and anyone can fall victim to it. We’ve created this page to assist you should you ever become affected by one or would like to know more about how you can better protect yourself and your business from scam or fraud.

Protect yourself from further exposure to fraudsters

Once your information or funds are shared with a fraudster, consider if there’s anything else malicious that they can do with it and protect yourself from further fraud.

Check and note down what information has been exposed to fraudsters. This may be your name, phone number, personal address, bank account details or other. You should include this in your fraud report but also be aware that if another fraudster tries to contact you, they might use the same information to influence you.

If a suspected fraudster tries to contact you again, ignore them but keep a record of their messages/calls so you can report them.

If you have given fraudster access to your online bank account, change your password as soon as possible. You can do so by clicking “Forgot password” on the GoSolo App Sign-In page.

If your card has been stolen, you can Freeze your card or Re-order a new card in the GoSolo App card management section.

Report fraud

Reporting fraud to multiple organisations will increase the chances of scammers getting caught and preventing fraud from happening again.

If you notice a suspicious transaction on your GoSolo account or believe that a fraudster has access to your GoSolo account, please contact us as soon as possible by emailing us at we@gosolo.net with the subject line “Fraud”. The sooner you report it, the higher the chance that we can help you with recovery and prevention of further fraud.

If the scammer is in your area or you’ve transferred money to the scammer in the last 24 hours, contact the police by calling 101.

You should also report fraud to Action Fraud (https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime), the UK's national reporting centre for fraud. They will give you a crime reference number and can involve the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to investigate the scam.

How to better protect yourself and your business against fraud

Safeguard your personal information

Reporting fraud to multiple organisations will increase the chances of scammers getting caught and preventing fraud from happening again.

Personal information is one of the key tools that scammers use to defraud individuals and their businesses. It includes your name, date of birth, home address, bank account details or transaction history, and medical and other personal history.
It’s important that you don’t share it with anyone whom you cannot verify to be a trusted party.
If an organisation holds your personal information, make sure that the access to that information is protected via 2-factor authentication e.g. password and one-time code rather than just a password.

Secure your devices

To reduce the chance of yourself being hacked, always make sure that your devices (laptop, tablet, mobile phone) run the most up-to-date software operating system.
You should also consider installing anti-virus software to proactively monitor threats and protect your devices and online accounts.

Recognise common fraud warning signs

Urgency: a sense of urgency is used to reduce your critical thinking of the situation and is a very common fraudster’s tactic. Official organisations will not rush you to make payments unless there have been multiple reminders beforehand.
Similar-looking but unofficial links to websites: fraudsters can create fake websites that have a similar company name with some small changes; the links may contain software viruses or mislead you into purchasing goods that will never get delivered – it’s better not to click on external links in such instances altogether.
Unrecognised or unofficial phone numbers or email accounts: if a phone number or an email address that you are being contacted from is not the official one (such as ones from the organisation’s website), it’s best to ignore the message(s) or phone call(s) altogether.
Unverified bank account details: most banks in the UK now run a check to see if account details match up to the provided bank account holder’s name; if these do not match, it’s best to take your time to re-verify provided account details as well as the reason for payment.
Offer too good to be true: scammers may use a very enticing offer to lure you in, sometimes asking for a deposit rather than a full sum, and then never delivering on the offer. Check how the offer compares with other trusted companies to see if the offer may be unrealistic.

Monitor your bank accounts

Check your online bank statements every so often to see any signs of abnormal or unexpected activity.
The sooner you notice and report any suspicious account activity, the higher the likelihood of preventing further fraud and containing the threat.

Fraud prevention