Many scams will be texts or emails that are posing as an official organisation. For example, during Covid, scammers faked messages from the NHS claiming that recipients had been a close contact of a case and saying that they must pay for a PCR test. When you receive a message like this, never pay any money and always check it out thoroughly or report it to Action Fraud to check.

Money laundering and fraud are both commonly seen cyber crimes. Often, these criminals will target businesses, so if you run a business, use a service like AML ID verification, to protect yourself and to ensure that the customer is who they say they are.

Messages via text or on Facebook messenger and WhatsApp asking for money are another scam that is widely used. The scammer will often pretend that they are a friend or family member who has a new account or phone and often asks the person to urgently transfer some money for them. If this happens to you never pay any money unless you are absolutely certain that they are who they say they are.

Online dating is another platform that scammers use to dupe their victims. Watch the Tinder Swindler on Netflix for an eye-opening glimpse into this. Also, be aware that online people can pretend to be whoever they want and will often try all manner of things to extract money from you, so be on your guard.