‘Scammers rely on secrecy and deception – so keep looking out for each other'

I recently received a message regarding an upcoming trip abroad. It appeared to be from the hotel I was staying in and had my arrival and departure dates, full name etc. It asked me to send a credit card to confirm my booking. As I have had to give credit card details before to hold a hotel room, at first I thought nothing of this.

However, as I have stayed in this hotel before and they always took payment on arrival, I thought it best to check. I emailed the hotel directly and was immediately told the message was not from them but was in fact a scam. I reported and blocked the message but it has really bothered me. How did the scammers know the dates of my trip, the name of the hotel and my phone number?

This is just another in the long line of scams we are all receiving on a regular basis. But it and other scams have made me weary of even the most genuine texts and emails.

Like many, I’ve received numerous texts supposedly from my children who appear to keep losing their phone and need my bank details to get them a new one.

These texts are set to trigger an emotional response and this makes us act faster without necessarily thinking it through. I now call them directly before answering any message and asks for money or card numbers.

Recently the name of a local plumber was used in a text to me asking for payment, even though I haven’t used his services. I regularly get texts and calls from banks looking for my banking details, although I’m not a customer of most of them.

While many of these scammers just chance their luck hoping the receiver will have used that plumber, be a customer of that particular bank etc, many have a lot of information on us that allows them to appear genuine.

Scammers collect data in any number of ways, many of which we are not even familiar with. We can limit what we share publicly but at the end of the day, we just have to stay vigilant.

It strikes me that our trust is being eroded. I think at this stage the issue for many people is more about losing trust than losing money.

Every fake message and fraudulent call makes me a little more skeptical.

We need to keep sharing the scams to warn each other. It’s hard to admit that we were or even came close to being a victim

I was recently waiting for a call back from a customer service representative of an Irish-based company. When my phone lit up with a call from Egypt, I didn’t answer as I’ve had numerous scam calls from abroad. I later found out this company, like many others, outsourced their customer service to other countries so the call was in fact genuine.

Because I hadn’t answered I had to go through another round of numerous emails to sort out something that the call would have done in minutes. But how can I trust calls when the majority of those I have received in the past have been scams?

As the fraudsters get more sophisticated we have to be increasingly cautious. But we need to balance this with the need to connect. We all have to use apps and websites for doing just about everything today. Every time we enter our personal details, we have to trust the owners of that site to keep our information private. We shouldn’t let scammers rob us of our ability to trust altogether.

As well as vigilance and skepticism perhaps the best way to fight back is through conversation. We need to keep sharing the scams to warn each other. It’s hard to admit that we were or even came close to being a victim. Doesn’t that make us out to be a bit stupid? Well, I have a banking background, run my own business and consider myself tech savvy and I’ve been conned.

Back in 2020, Janine Kennedy interviewed me for this very paper as I had been scammed. On that occasion I got my money back and by sharing the story I hoped it stopped someone else losing their money.

Scammers rely on secrecy and deception; openness and awareness are our best defences. So, let’s keep sharing, keep questioning, and most importantly, keep looking out for each other.