It's important to remember that any one of us could quite easily become the victim of a scam – nobody is immune however careful you think you are.

Here is some advice from the Isle of Wight Against Scams Partnership, known as IWASP, and some useful helplines too.

For more information on scams visit www.iwasp.org.uk

• NEVER believe a call purporting to be from your banks fraud department. If you
receive one of these calls, call 159 to confirm if the call is legitimate.

• NEVER believe an online request for financial help or offering financial advice from a friend. Scammers can hack and clone emails, Facebook pages and Whatsapp accounts and pretend to be one of your friends to gain access to your details or cash from you.

• NEVER use Paypal Friends and Family payments to buy anything or transfer money for goods. These are immediate payments designed to only be used between friends and family and you will have no recourse if the item doesn’t appear or isn’t what you ordered.

• NEVER trade on the doorstep. Any genuine trader will never knock the door and offer to do work for you. The work is likely to be shoddy and the original price will quickly escalate. Flyers and leaflets are relatively cheap and easy to produce and are no guarantee of a company being genuine.

• NEVER buy an item from Facebook Marketplace without seeing it first. Visit the
property and inspect the goods, if the person selling is reluctant to do this then walk away.

Reporting a Scam
• For advice on scams call - Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline: 0808 250 5050
• To report a scam call - Action Fraud: 0300 123 2040