Top tips to help employees avoid financial scammers

Companies can offer valuable advice and guidance to workers about the multiple methods fraudsters are using to steal money and identities.

Scammers are using multiple methods to hoodwink people out of their money with more than a third (34%) fallling victim to two or more types of scam in the last 12 months.

According to research by WEALTH at work these are the most common financial scams that people are losing money to in the last year:

Purchase scam – 27% of respondents said they lost money to a financial scam such as the sale of fake products or goods online.
Investment scam – 19% said they were drawn into investing in fake opportunities or pyramid schemes.
Friends or family scam – 18% said they fell for messages sent claiming to be someone they knew asking for money.
Bank account scam – 18% said their account had been compromised.
Tech support scam – 15% said it was through fake technical support services that were used to obtain personal details.
Befriending/romance scam – 14% said it was through scams where someone becomes your friend, then asks for money.
Pensions scam – 13% said it was through fake promises of guaranteed returns or early access to their pension.
Tax refund scam – 10% said it was through fake promises of tax rebates.
Lottery scam – 9% said it was through fake claims that they’ve won a prize.

“Financial scamming is rife and it’s shocking that many people have lost money not just once, but multiple times to scams in the last year,” said Jonathan Watts-Lay, director, WEALTH at work.

“People need to be on their guard as fraudsters use many convincing techniques to persuade their victims that they are genuine. Many of these scams look completely legitimate and are not easy to spot.”

Legitimate savings vehicles

Many leading employers offer financial education, guidance and access to regulated financial advice to help people understand the warning signs when it comes to a scam so that it can be avoided. Employers play an important role in supporting the financial wellbeing of their employees and helping them to protect their money from scams throughout their career and at retirement is key.

As well as this, many employers also provide employees with access to legitimate savings and investment vehicles such as a workplace ISAs or share plan. The fear of being scammed should never be a barrier to saving for the future.