National Fraud Helpline has created a Christmas card that contains hidden warnings about seasonal scams for the public to find.
Our yuletide card depicts five common scams for people to look out for during the festive period.
The idea behind the card is to illustrate that while on the surface it’s a time for celebration, there are hidden dangers to be aware of when it comes to fraud.
Martin Richardson, senior partner at National Fraud Helpline solicitors, said: ‘Christmas is a time of year when fraudsters take advantage of the fact that many people are frantic and also need extra money.
‘Our Christmas card is meant to be depict the fact that everything may not be exactly what it seems on the surface.
‘We came up with the idea of hiding five key Christmas scams in our card as part of our general scam awareness campaign.
‘Everyone is so busy at this time of year that it’s easier for scammers to take advantage.’
The five hidden scams are explained below with links on how to avoid them:
A romance scam: A merry Mrs Christmas appears to be looking for love. For many people Christmas is a lonely time of year that makes them particularly susceptible to falling for romance fraudsters.
An impersonation scam: A fake Santa Claus is up to no good in his mask. There is a general rise of scammers pretending to be family members and the chaos of Christmas makes this easier.
Crypto investment fraud: A building has a sign offering fake Bitcoin investment. Christmas money and bonuses means some people are keen to invest and there are many scammers ready to take advantage.
Parcel delivery scam: A large letterbox asks for a fee to release a present. People often fall for a text saying that they need to pay money for a parcel to be delivered as there’s so many deliveries happening.
Fake jobs scam: Santa is being offered money for a job that doesn’t exist. With households needing more money fake job scams are on the rise at this time of year.
Mr Richardson said: ‘We chose five scams that are particularly prevalent this time of year. We’ve recently seen an upturn in the number of fake job scams where people are asked to review products and then told they need to pay money to release their wages. Similarly, parcel delivery scams are very common at Christmas.
‘There’s no good time to be scammed but it can be particularly bad when it happens at Christmas time.’
Have you lost money to a scam? Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.