Impersonation scams

When someone pretends to be the police, a bank, a friend or business, to convince you to send them money.

How it could happen to you

You receive an email, text message or call that looks or sounds like it’s from someone you know or deal with – scammers impersonate other people and companies by making calls or text messages that look like they’re coming from a genuine number
They might say that they need money urgently, you’ve got an outstanding bill to pay or that your internet isn’t working. If you’ve been contacted unexpectedly, always treat it as suspicious
Scammers will try to rush or panic you. They might say there’s been fraud on your account and you need to move the money to protect yourself – this is a sure sign of a scam
Scammers can change their caller ID or email address, or label their text message with a company name. This disguises their real identity and makes it look like it's from someone you know, and is known as ‘number spoofing’
If you receive unexpected messages or calls, especially ones asking for money, end the call. Use a trusted source like the company's website to find their genuine number, and then call them back

How to protect yourself

Think twice before opening links in text messages and emails, especially ones that ask you to give personal information or make a payment
Never give remote access to your computer or device to someone who has called you unexpectedly
Remember – an official company or organisation would never ask you to pay for something by buying items like vouchers, jewellery or gold
Nobody trustworthy will ever ask you to transfer your money to a ‘safe account’ or say that ‘your money is at risk’. If this happens, it’s a scam

What does it look like?

We've written some stories that show what impersonation scams might look like. They describe common tactics we know scammers use, based on insights from our fraud and scams team.

See the story