Beware cold callers selling vitamin and herbal remedies. These callers often pretend to have contacted your doctor and may ask about your health issues. If in doubt, talk to your doctor or social worker.

If unsure, don't answer the door. A genuine caller will make an appointment with you before turning up.
Ask traders for their ID.
Don't keep large sums of money at home.
Don't buy goods or services at the door, even if a trader tells you work needs to be done urgently.

Call the police on 101 if callers won't leave.

Find a local trusted trader

Junk mail

Common scams are fake lotteries, prize draws and clairvoyants. Look out for:

anyone asking for money up front – processing or handling fees are a con
mail that says you're a winner... but you need to buy goods from them first. They're usually overpriced and you'll never win the big prize
a promise that you've won a prize for a competition or lottery you never entered
letters which ask you to call them back to claim a prize. They may be promoting a premium rate number such as 090 or 070.

Check adverts carefully – don’t buy from newspaper adverts, social media or marketing leaflets unless you’re sure they’re genuine. Celebrity endorsements can’t always be trusted because they can be easily faked.

Unexpected phone calls

Fraudsters can pretend to be from the bank and ask you to give them your details.

Never tell anyone your PIN number or passwords – a real bank or the police will never ask for these.
If you suspect a call is a scam, hang up and call 159. This is a secure service that connects you directly with your bank. Calls to 159 are usually charged at the national rate, depending on your provider.
Beware of calling premium rate numbers such as 090 or 070 or international numbers, which start 00.
Check the line – scammers can keep your phone line open even after you’ve hung up. Use a different phone, call someone you know first to check the line is free, or wait 15 minutes to make sure that any scammers have hung up.

Register with the Telephone Preference Service to opt out of unsolicited sales or marketing calls from UK companies. Anyone offering to stop nuisance calls for a fee is a scammer, don't use them.

Call blockers

Some phones have call-blocking features to stop unwanted calls. If yours doesn’t, you can buy separate call blockers.
Some blockers come pre-programmed with known nuisance numbers. Some allow you to add numbers to that list when you get a nuisance or scam call.
Hertfordshire Trading Standards has a small stock to give to vulnerable victims of these crimes. please contact us if required.
We’ve been installing callblockers for people in most need for 10 years. In that time, they have blocked an estimated 58,000 unwanted calls.

Scam talks

Hertfordshire Trading Standards has provided 66 scams talks over the last year.
The total savings from our prevention work is estimated at £1.4m.
If you'd like to arrange a talk, contact...

Scams are crimes

Report a scam

Scams and fraud advice

Online advice

Talk to someone

Printable leaflets

Cold calling

Unexpected phone calls

Call blockers

Scam talks

Friends Against Scams

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