National Trading Standards and Lloyds Banking Group have today announced a new partnership designed to prevent people falling victim to scams.
National Trading Standards and Lloyds Banking Group have today announced a new partnership designed to prevent people falling victim to scams.
Friends Against Scams is a campaign led by the National Trading Standards Scams Team, which empowers communities to identify, spot and report potential scams. The initiative includes a range of training opportunities for consumers and organisations whose staff are likely to have touchpoints with potential victims, including banks, building societies and utility companies.
As an official Friends Against Scams partner, Lloyds Banking Group is supporting the initiative by rolling out tailored training for colleagues across the bank, so they are even better equipped to protect their customers as well as their own families and friends.
Lloyds Banking Group has also been working with National Trading Standards to fund and design a new guide to help people have more meaningful conversations about scams. The guide has initially been distributed across the branch network to support front-line colleagues.
Tim Symington, Director of Financial Intelligence Unit for Lloyds Banking Group said:
“Helping keep our customers’ money safe is a top priority and our colleagues are highly-trained to spot the tell-tale signs of scams with customers.
“We are proud to partner with the National Trading Standards Scams Team on their Friends Against Scams campaign, which will help our colleagues spread the warning even more widely that absolutely anyone can become the victim of a scam.
“That’s why it’s vital that we are all aware of what we can do to protect ourselves against scams, and share that message with our friends and family.”
Lord Toby Harris, Chair of the National Trading Standards Board, said:
"The tactics used by criminals often leaves victims socially isolated and ashamed of telling their friends and families what's really going on behind closed doors.
“It is fantastic to have such an influential organisation as Lloyds Banking Group on board to help us tackle this problem on a local, regional and national level.
“I would encourage all those that are interested in showing their support to join the campaign and be part of our growing Friends Against Scams network.”
Since it launched in 2016 more than 300,000 Friends Against Scams have committed to take a stand against scams. Lloyds Banking Group is one of a number of organisations that have joined the Friends Against Scams initiative, including NatWest, Neighbourhood Watch and Age UK. Other Friends Against Scams include Bournemouth University and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.
Scams often target people made vulnerable because of their situations or circumstances, which means the harm is often emotional as well as financial. More than half of over 65s (53%) have been targeted by scams.
Fraud is now the most common type of crime in the UK, but only 5% of scams are actually reported. Anyone who believes they may have been the victim of a scam should contact their bank immediately, and then share the details with the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06.
Notes to Editors
About National Trading Standards
National Trading Standards delivers national and regional consumer protection enforcement. Its Board is made up of senior and experienced heads of local government trading standards from around England and Wales with an independent Chair. Its purpose is to protect consumers and safeguard legitimate businesses by tackling serious national and regional consumer protection issues and organised criminality and by providing a “safety net” to limit unsafe consumer goods entering the UK and protecting food supplies by ensuring the animal feed chain is safe.
National Trading Standards Scams Team
The National Trading Standards Scams Team works in partnership with other agencies across the country to identify and support victims of mass marketing fraud.
About Friends Against Scams
Friends Against Scams aims to protect and prevent people from becoming victims of scams by empowering people to take a stand against scams. Anyone can join the Friends Against Scams campaign by attending a Friends Against Scams awareness session or completing the online learning. With increased knowledge and awareness, people can make scams part of everyday conversation with their family, friends and neighbours which will enable them to protect themselves and others.
Other Friends Against Scams partners include Bournemouth University, Neighbourhood Watch and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. For more information visit: https://www.FriendsAgainstScams.org.uk/
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group is a leading UK based financial services group providing a wide range of banking and financial services, focused on personal and commercial customers. The Group’s main business activities are retail, commercial and corporate banking, general insurance, and life, pensions and investment provision.
Services are offered through a number of well recognised brands including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, and Scottish Widows, and a range of distribution channels. This includes the largest branch network in the UK and a comprehensive digital, telephony and mobile services. Helping keep our customers’ money safe is a top priority and we have sophisticated, multi-layered defences place to help protect our customers from scammers. We are continually strengthening our defences using new technology, analysing data in real-time to stop fraud happening in the first place and reminding our customers how to stay safe.
We are a leading supporter of the ‘Banking Protocol’ initiative. This aims to identify customers who are being defrauded and disrupt fraudsters in action. We can alert the police on a dedicated number if we believe this is happening. Branch colleagues receive regular training to identify and take action when they see suspicious activity on an account. For example, large, one-off withdrawals, multiple withdrawals out of keeping with the usual account activity or if a customer appears ill at ease when making a withdrawal. Our colleagues know how to discuss types of fraud and scams with customers, from rogue traders knocking on their door claiming they have an urgent problem with their roof, to fraudsters claiming to be from the banks’ fraud department or police customer that their accounts are at risk.
We have dedicated resources online which contain in-depth advice on how customers can protect themselves. There is also printed material such as leaflets available in our branches, and all our colleagues in branch and over the phone are trained to be able to assist our customers with questions relating to fraud prevention.