Christmas Scams

According to the Office for National Statistics, which collects crime data, fraud incidents jumped  by a million incidents in the past year with 4.2 million frauds in the year to March 2025. With Christmas round the corner, shopping based frauds schemes are likely to hit new highs.

Our money man Adam appears regularly as an expert on the BBC’s Rip off Britain, and is the presenter of many programmes for ITV’s Tonight programme looking at fraud and he is hear to guide us through some of the most prevalent scams.

Q: FACEBOOK RIP OFFS

You’ve been looking at a problem with some rogue adverts on Facebook which can trap people. What has happened there?

A: I looked into the case of Graham has been drawn in by 2 adverts he saw on Facebook on 2 separate occasions, 2 days apart. The adverts were for big computer brands and said that they had a warehouse of old stock/old models of laptops that they need to get rid of, so to get the chance of getting your hands on a laptop, you have to register and pay £2 or £3.

He thought this would be good as he thought 2 laptops would come in handy for some of his grandchildren. He registered on both adverts and entered details of his credit card. He gave them details like his name, address and credit card details.

He didn’t receive any emails or confirmation, so just thought that at most he had lost £5, with one ad had taken £2 and the other took £3.

However, he soon noticed on his credit card statement that one company was taking a fairly regular £42 and the other was taking £45, again every so often.

Whereas he thought he had spent £5 he had in fact been charged £250 over a number of separate charges.

What seems to be happening here is what is called a Recurring Card Payments or  Continuous Payment Authority.It’s when a company takes the long number on your credit card and then continues to take money from it in the future.

The law says you can withdraw your consent and stop a future payment at any time.

To withdraw consent, simply tell whoever issued your card (the bank, building society or credit card company) that you don’t want the payment to be made. You can tell the card issuer by phone, email or letter.

Your card issuer has no right to insist that you ask the company taking the payment first. They have to stop the payments if you ask them to.

How Did Graham Get his Money Back?

Graham got in touch with his credit card provider, who he said was very helpful, and blocked any more payments being taken from his account. They also advised him to write to both companies about refund.

Paying by credit card does give you a huge amount of consumer protection, so that if things go wrong, you can often get your moneyback. But it also means you should keep an eye on what is leaving your account, so you can spot any activity that doesn’t look right.

DELIVERY SCAMS

Q: We tend to get a lot of shopping delivered instead of going out so it is normal to miss a delivery but this has led to an increasing type of fraud called Spay and Pay delivery fraud.

A: The spray and pay scam refers to criminals spraying” thousands of similar messages to mobile phones and getting them to pay a surcharge because the parcel didn’t have the right postage paid.

Since this is for Christmas you are under pressure to get it sorted – so are tempted to pay.

The problem is, the package in the text does not exist, and you have just handed your bank details to a criminal gang. It could include credit card details and passwords, or date and place of birth. That can be used to steal money or even identity theft.

WINTER FUEL ALLOWANCE SCAM

Q: There is also something called The Winter Heating Allowance Scam. The Winter Fuel Allowance is a payment made to people to help keep their homes wam – so how can a payment to people turn out to be a scam?

The Winter Fuel Allowance is now being paid now, directly into people’s accounts. The way the fraud works is this. Criminals tell the recipient they need to reapply for the allowance because there is a problem with the payment and they need to enter their bank details. This is a traditional phishing scam that gets your bank details, email addresses, date of birth and other private information and use it to access your accounts or sell on the Dark Web.

GIFTCARD SCAMS

Q: Giftcards are very popular at Christmas – especially if you are in a rush or don’t know what to buy. But they too are being used by criminals – how does that fraud work?

A: Scammers love gift cards because they're easy to buy, hard to trace, spent quickly and can be sold on and according to Which? to make things even worse for victims of gift card scams, it can be really difficult to get your money back. 

There are a few forms in which the scam operates:

i)               Scammers can impersonate your friends or colleagues to craft a convincing scam.  The 'friend' has lost their bank card while on holiday, and a gift card was urgently needed while they waited for a replacement card.  Which? advise that if you receive an email asking you to purchase a gift card, always contact that person using another method, such as via a phone call, to double-check it’s them emailing you. 

ii)              Posts on social media from hacked and scam accounts often advertise free or heavily discounted high-value gift cards at popular retailers. These scams usually involve a malicious link that directs you to a website where you're asked to provide personal and financial details in order to receive the non-existent card.

iii)            You get an email impersonating the People's Postcode Lottery telling you you've won a 'scratch card advent calendar' with daily prizes. You click a link to complete a survey to receive the advent calendar, which will lead to a malicious website designed to grab your personal and financial details.

Q: It all sounds upsetting and worrying especially in the run-up to Christmas – but there is good news as well – what is that?

A: Authorised push payment fraud happens when someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee. Every year thousands of people and businesses are victims of APP fraud.

• Purchase fraud, where criminals pretend to sell things that don’t exist. 

• Impersonation fraud, where criminals claim to be someone from a bank, the police or another trusted organisation to steal money. 

• Investment fraud, where you are convinced to move your money into a fictitious fund or to pay for what later turns out to be a fake investment. 

• Romance fraud, when criminals use a fake dating profile to start a relationship with you and then ask for money. 

• Invoice fraud, where fraudsters send false invoices.

In the past – if you had fallen victim to any of these crimes, you could well have ended up losing all your money. That’s because you authorised the payments – so the bank could have said they were acting on your instructions.

In a very strong piece of consumer protection legislation, consumers are now largely protected by this specific fraud.

The new protection means you should get your money back as long as:

·      Payments made within the UK. You are not covered for a payment sent overseas.

·      Payments made using Faster Payments.

·      Payments made using CHAPS.

·      Payments from personal bank accounts and payments made by micro-enterprises and certain charities.

Contact your bank immediately if you have lost money in an APP fraud. It is important that you do this as soon as you realise that you may have been scammed as delays can cause problems when trying to recover your funds.

You must report the fraud no more than 13 months after the last fraudulent payment was made.

The maximum amount of money you can claim under the rules is £85,000.

There is good guide to the protection from UK Finance here

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