Spring clean your finances, part 2: Stay scam smart

Spring is in the air! It’s the perfect time to take a fresh look at your finances and our latest PeaPod series is here to help.

In this episode, we’re talking to Marie from our Cyber Security team about the different types of scams and what you can do to stay safe. 

Listen to find out:

• How to spot a scam 
• How to avoid scams 
• Support available if you’ve been affected by a scam

Subscribe for future episodes, including information about home contents insurance, financial support we offer and a Q&A with our Customer Contact Centre advisors on common questions from our residents.

Subscribe for future episodes, including your options for moving home and a Q&A with our Customer Contact Centre advisors on common questions from our residents.

Transcript

Hi, welcome to PeaPod, the podcast for Peabody residents.

This episode is part of a mini-series on spring cleaning your finances. My name is Ricardo and I'm part of the Communications team. In this episode, we're sitting down with Marie from our Cyber Security team. She's going to talk to us about being scam aware and what you can do to protect yourself and your family. Welcome, Marie.

My name is Marie Jeffrey and I'm the Business Information Security Officer at Peabody. My role within the organisation is to provide security awareness training to colleagues and residents, alerting people to the latest scams and what they can do to protect themselves.

What types of scams have residents reported?

The one we hear most about involves other organisations gaining data from data breaches related to individuals. They will cold call an individual and say they're calling from a housing association, they’re hoping the person they get at the end of call lives in a housing association property. They're trying to get personal information about you when they call, they might say you've reported a repair, in the hope that that person has reported a repair, and then they’ll ask lots of questions. That’s the typical thing that we will hear – a resident will then call us to ask why an organisation has their details, thinking it might be linked to Peabody. We need to make it clear that these calls are nothing to do with us. They're taking a chance, often using data from breaches, including names, telephone numbers and possibly email or postal addresses. They’re trying to obtain more data or money from whoever it is they call. I've received one of these calls myself, they’re trying their luck.

What other types of scams are out there?

Personally, I have received a random SMS message saying that Royal Mail has my parcel and I have to click a link to redirect my parcel or choose a different delivery date. I never ordered anything. What other types of scams might be out there that are similar to that? 

You're always going to get things around a specific time of year. The parcel scam skyrockets around Christmas, when people are sending and receiving a lot of things. That will become more popular. The HMRC scam appears every time people have to submit their tax return. There are a lot of things that are seasonal. Also, when there’s a big event happening, when we’re going to vote or when there was covid. There were huge numbers of scams around that. They will be via text message, telephone call, email, and they're all ultimately trying to get the same thing from you - it's either trying to get some more personal information about you or financial information. My advice for these kinds of messages that come through to you is check who's sent that to you. Are you sure it is who they say they are, does that telephone number relate? But even if that telephone number does relate, don't trust it because some scammers can actually - it's called spoof - they can make the telephone number look like it's coming from Barclays Bank as an example. But really check - check where the link is directing you to and if you're not sure, go directly to that website, the website you trust or telephone the organisation. There’s lots of scams that come in through lots of different methods.

What other things can residents do if they suspect that something might be a scam?

My advice would always be to go with your instinct in the first instance. But, the best thing you can do is go directly to the organisation they're claiming to be, either from a phone number you've obtained yourself - get that phone number from the proper website - or a number that you trust and phone them or email them and double check to make sure that it is them that's sending you the material.

Making a two minute phone call can really save you headaches in the future? Absolutely. 

If somebody is scammed, what do you recommend that they do?

The first thing I would do is report it to Action Fraud, they're a part of the police and their remit is to deal with fraud, they deal with cyber fraud. At least they’ll have a record of it, they can investigate it, and if money has been lost, they can try and retrieve that. We do put posts on our website if there's any advice that we can give around certain things, but there's lots of other resources out there, there's always Citizens Advice Bureau. They could always go there. If you're scammed through a specific site, you should report it to that site. If it's Amazon, eBay or any social media sites, do report it to them, let them know and then they can try and clamp down on these individuals that are committing these crimes.

Is there anything else that we can do for residents?

We do have our Advice and Wellbeing Support team. They're there for residents if you need support, please do make contact with them – they’re there to help you. 

Facebook accounts do get hacked on a regular basis and the best way to protect against that is to set up multi-factor authentication. Go into your settings, security, turn it on and put a code in, that gives you security to stop somebody else - if they've got your password from another source - being able to get into your account. If you think your password has been stolen or has been leaked, get that password changed. 

What would you say to somebody who thinks it seems like a faff to get multi-factor authentication?

My response is always, we've done it on online banking for years - it's not a faff. It's what we've gotten used to and we can get used to multi-factor authentication on other applications. You don't have to do it every time you log in. You only have to do it if you log in from a new device or if you've changed location - it's not every time you go in. It will prevent somebody else from being able to get into your account. 

Thank you for coming on to the podcast today and speaking to us about being scam aware. 

Be careful out there - there's lots of people trying to scam. Be careful about the links that you click on, double check who sends you information and who is trying to get information from you.

Thank you for listening to this episode of PeaPod on being scam aware. In the next part, we'll be speaking to Danny and Rosa about general financial wellbeing.