A 15-minute view.  

In a short but punchy interview I am really chuffed to be joined by Daniel Williams, financial planner at Morgan Williams & Co, to discuss better education for advisers and the public in terms of the ever present threat of financial scams.

 

Dan has put a huge amount of effort in to this area and is well known for helping advisers address these issues.

“I am a huge believer in financial education.”

To help members Dan has also kindly supplied some great links to helpful information which should be of interest to anyone seeking to protect themselves or their clients.

Your digital footprint is too big video.

Staying safe on-line.

Staying safe on-line (2).

Spotting the fake stuff.

Dan also supplied the following tips on what to do if you think you have been scammed;

1. Alert your own bank immediately. If relevant, Inform them if you have paid to a fraudulent bank account from your own account held with them. Help and support with this is provided in the following link: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-to-do-if-youre-the-victim-of-a-bank-transfer-app-scam.
2. Alert any financial services organisations where you hold investments/accounts etc of the situation and ask for some form of protection to be applied, be it a password or a warning marker to ask them to contact you in the event of any funds attempted to be withdrawn, or details being amended etc (or any unusual level of contact). I would suggest highlighting this to your financial adviser also to ensure they have some visibility.
3. To pre-empt any financial services products being effected in your names with existing providers or elsewhere, you can effect a protective registration with a charity fraud prevention organisation known as CIFAS (see link below), where they will alert you of any activity.
4. You can also register (usually for free) with one of the credit reference agencies for a regular update on your credit report (I have provided the link to Credit Karma, a free service provided by TransUnion – formerly CallCredit), but the other agencies, such as Experian and Equifax also provide such services (link below).
5. If you own property, you should also consider registering for a free Property Alert with the Land Registry, in case someone tries to do something with your property (link below).
6. As a victim you should you should make a report to the Police via their online reporting website ‘Action Fraud’ (link below). The Action Fraud site will also contain advice relating to scams etc as will other sites such as Citizens Advice (as well as the credit reference agencies and your bankers).
7. You may also want to seek advice from the DVLA and/or passport office regarding any action they may recommend where such forms of ID may have been compromised.
8. In the coming weeks/months please be very cautious of anyone other than your bank offering to recredit you with money, particularly if they ask for a fee in order to proceed. 

Other useful links to explore on the subject;

https://www.cifas.org.uk/services/identity-protection/protective-registration 
https://www.creditkarma.co.uk/
https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

If its helpful, the best keynote speakers Dan has seen in this are area;

John Sileo – https://sileo.com/

Dan him a few years ago at a Nucleus conference. He came up with the idea of “Hog Wash” – treat everything as fake until you can prove it is real

Jenny Radcliffe – https://humanfactorsecurity.co.uk/

Amazing speaker on Social Engineering – and also offers services to try to break into a workplace. Seriously knows her stuff.

As ever, we are incredibly grateful to Dan for offering to appear in the #BBFS expo and share so much good information with members in such an important area.

On top of all that, always a personal treat to chat with Dan, a financial planning professional who is totally committed to his clients.

Lee