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Session 8: Beware of financial fraud
Learning outcomes
Session learning outcomes
By completing this session, you will be able to describe:
How financial fraudsters may target young adults.
Cash point fraud.
Cryptocurrency fraud.
Glossary
8.1 Financial fraud
Financial fraud is very common.
Fraudsters use a variety of tactics to deceive people and steal their identity and money. A brief list of different tactics used by fraudsters is given below.
Click on each tile to learn more.
Unfortunately, the list above does not fully capture all the tactics used by fraudsters. For a more comprehensive list of financial crimes and frauds, please visit Action Fraud.
Anybody can become a victim of financial fraud
Watch this short video in which a journalist explains how he became a victim of financial fraud.
Use the box below to make notes (or write it down in your notepad).
Feedback
The key message you should learn from this video is that anybody can become a victim of financial fraud.
Therefore, it is really important to be vigilant.
8.2 Seeking help
The Financial Ombudsman Service provides the following advice to victims of financial fraud.
| Contact your bank or payment service provider immediately |
| Contact the police on 101 |
| Report the scam to Action Fraud – the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime |
| Keep records of all contact and correspondence between you and the scammer. This will be useful when you ask your bank – or payment service provider – to reimburse you and if you need to bring a complaint to our service later. |
In addition, you may also contact Citizens Advice for assistance.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regularly publishes a list of firms that are not authorised to operate in the UK. If a financial firm has contacted you but you are not sure about its legitimacy, you can use the FCA’s Firm Checker to check whether the firm is authorised to operate in the UK.
Moving on
References
Financial Ombudsman Service (2025) Financial dispute resolution that’s fair and impartial. Available at: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/ (Accessed 16 July 2025).
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (2025) About us. Available at: https://www.fca.org.uk/about (Accessed 16 July 2025).
Acknowledgements
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources:
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
Important: *** against any of the acknowledgements below means that the wording has been dictated by the rights holder/publisher, and cannot be changed.
Images:
565842: Image: Laptop and fraudster: FGC / Shutterstock
565844 : Image: Falling into hands : ma_Design / Shutterstock
565896: Image: Paper plane: Wirestock Creators / Shutterstock
Weblinks:
All categories A-Z of fraud | Action Fraud
Financial Ombudsman Service: our homepage
Get help with scams - Citizens Advice
FCA Firm Checker | FCA