The current cost of living crisis means falling for a fraud or scam could hit you harder than ever.

Citizens Advice have teamed up with a national campaign to help you identify a fraud or scam. Take Five to Stop Fraud offers straight forward advice to help people protect themselves against email, phone based and online fraud.

These are some examples of scams to be on your guard for:

1. Impersonation Fraud

An impersonation scam is where a criminal pretends to be from trusted organisations such as a bank, the police, your energy supplier or the government to name a few. Their approaches often start with a text or email from the ‘organisation’ asking you to take some kind of action, such as transferring money to another account. They will usually pressure you to act immediately.

2. Purchase Fraud

Many of us find online shopping convenient but it’s important to be careful. If a deal seems to good to be true, it often is. Scammers sometimes use cloned websites or cloned URLs to make it look like you’re on a legitimate website. You may also be asked to pay by bank transfer.

3. Payment in Advance Fraud

This is also called advance fee fraud, where the consumer is asked to pay an upfront fee for a service that you never receive. It is common for scammers to put you under pressure to pay quickly or use cryptocurrency.

If you get a request for money or personal details before you do anything you should:

Stop — Taking a few minutes to think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe. Scammers will often try to rush you and they can sound very plausible. Challenge — Could it be fake? Check our online scams helper tool or takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/ for more information on how to look for signs a company or website is not what it seems.

Protect — Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve fallen for a scam and report it to Action Fraud. Citizens Advice is here to help. You can contact our consumer service over the phone or online to check if something is a scam. We provide free, impartial and confidential support and we can help you report the scam and advise you on the next steps you need to take.