Protecting yourself - scams, phishing emails and fraud

Over a third of students in the UK have been targeted by fraud and scams. Financial losses for students range from a few pounds to over £40,000 in one scam alone. This section has essential information for you to help protect your personal details and money.

What is Fraud?

Fraud is when someone deceives, tricks, or lies to gain money/financial benefits or personal data that is unauthorised. 

The type of fraud that impacts students the most is Criminal Fraud. Criminal Fraud is when a person or an organised group steals your money or personal data. 

Impact of criminal fraud on you

Being the victim of fraud can have serious consequences for you, which can include:

  • Losing your money. This can have consequences on you being able to afford your tuition fees or accommodation. It can also impact any savings you had to help you in the future.
  • Identify theft. Your personal details are used to make payments in your name without you knowing. This can impact your ability to get credit (for example, phone contracts, loans, a mortgage) in the future.
  • You being arrested and charged with an offence. Being charged with an offence means that you’re formally accused of breaking the law.

What is a Scam?

A scam is a dishonest scheme for making money or getting an advantage (including data theft) which involves tricking people.   

Scammers (those who run the scam) manipulate people by exploiting either their kindness to help, making them believe something is real and/or making a request urgent so someone feels they must respond straight away. They want you to act without thinking or checking if the information they are saying is correct.

Scams can happen in various situations, which all have some similar things in common:

  • They seem very convincing and give you confidence that it is real. This may include something that looks like information from your bank, University, embassy or Amazon.
  • They offer rewards such as goods/products, services, prizes and/or easy money. These scams usually involve requests of clicking on a link and provide some information to get your prize/money/service.
  • They ask for your personal information. They could ask for your bank details with the excuse of wanting to send you money they claim is easy to get.

Ignore them and don’t share any information. If the contact has come via a phone call, don’t engage with the person – end the call. If it is an email, just delete it.

If you share your information, it can be used by hackers to then access your personal data and take money from your bank account. 

If something looks too good to be true – then it is. Here are some useful resources that can help you recognise and protect yourself from fraud and scams:

What is Phishing?

Phishing usually happens through emails or messages. These messages pretend to be from an organisation or a person you trust (for example, your bank). The main goal is usually to steal personal data, such as login information for accounts and credit card details.

Be careful – even if the sender is someone you know or recognise, their email address might be hacked. Phishing emails and messages usually contain:

  • A warning that your information has been compromised, your account is to be closed or something else has happened that needs your immediate attention.
  • A link or an attachment that you need to follow/open, for example to reset a password, enter updated payment details or confirm personal information.  
  • A message that you need to act immediately to avoid something happening to your profile/account.
  • A message from a person sharing a link for you to click on for a prize or to say they have seen you in a video.  

Ignore the contact and don’t click on any links or provide any information. If you do, the personal or card information you give can be used to access your accounts and steal money. It could also infect your device (your mobile phone or laptop) with a virus that could impact whatever you have stored, including your academic work.  

If you receive a message or an email and you want to check if it’s real or not, contact the organisation but don’t reply to the email directly. If you’ve been contacted by an organisation (for example, a bank) find their email address online first and use this address to contact them. If someone you know has got in touch with you, type their email address into a separate message to check if their email address has been hacked. 

Watch this video on how to avoid scams and phishing.

Learn more about the different types of fraud and scams. 

Find out what to do if you’ve received something and don’t know if it’s fraud or a scam.

Find out what to do if you’re a victim of fraud or a scam.