Many people have felt lonely or isolated during the pandemic – and in some cases, it can leave them more at risk of being scammed.
Having a trusted second opinion – whether it’s about someone you’ve met online, or a cold caller claiming to be from your bank – can stop scams in their tracks.
Nationwide Building Society (nationwide.co.uk) recently found a quarter (25%) of those who have experienced loneliness or social isolation at least once a week also say they have been scammed at some point.
This is higher than the 21% of people generally who have fallen for a scam.
Humans crave social contact, and this might override your natural instincts. Nationwide found one in 10 (12%) people would carry on engaging with someone they were chatting to online, even if they suspected their motives.
Ed Fisher, head of fraud policy at Nationwide Building Society, says: “We’re all suggestible to a degree. Loneliness and isolation might exacerbate it, because you haven’t got somebody to talk it through with. You can’t just turn to your husband, wife or partner and say: ‘I’ve just had a call from the bank’.
“And they can’t independently say: ‘Well that sounds odd, what did they say?’ You don’t have that checkpoint.”
Fisher explains fraudsters might play on people’s sense of confusion about what is really happening, and put them in a “fight or flight state” – giving the false impression there is an emergency, and they need to act quickly.
A romance…
