Impersonation scams: How to protect yourself

Impersonation scams are types of fraud typically conducted via the internet or phone. Both in the UK and the rest of the world, many consumers and businesses have, by no fault of their own, fallen victim to them.

In this guide, we’ll tell you more about impersonation scams and how you can do your best to avoid them. We’ll cover some of the most common scam types, what to look out for and how to report them to Wise.

What is an impersonation scam?¹

Impersonation scams involve criminals pretending to be a trusted organisation or business in order to trick you into giving up your personal or financial details. In some cases, they may directly ask you for a money transfer.

Impersonation scams often begin with a call or message related to your finances. These communications may appear to come from your bank, money services provider, a delivery company or even the police or government. The criminals will usually try to convince you that your account is at risk or that you need to urgently send them money.

Scammers may even impersonate your friends or family members. In this case, you’ll likely be contacted through social media or messaging apps and asked to help a loved one immediately.

What counts as impersonation?

When a person falsely represents himself or herself as someone else, that's considered impersonation.² In cases of internet or phone fraud, a criminal pretends to be someone trustworthy in order to obtain your personal information.

Is impersonation considered a crime in the UK?³

Simply impersonating someone online isn’t a crime in the UK. However, impersonating a police officer or pretending to be someone else for fraudulent reasons is illegal. Those who impersonate others in order to obtain money, goods or services may be prosecuted under the Fraud Act 2006. The potential prison sentence for this is between 12 months and ten years.

Types of impersonation scam to watch out for

Let’s go through some popular impersonation scam types:

Government impersonation scam⁴

This type of scam involves criminals pretending to be trusted government organisations. They might contact you by sending you a message with a link encouraging you to click and enter your details or even by threatening deportation, arrest or similar legal actions.

Charity impersonation scam⁴

Sometimes scammers impersonate charities and collect money on their behalf. This type of scam can even take place in person. It’s important to ensure any charities you donate to are genuine, as in some cases, scammers may even use these donations for illegal purposes.

Celebrity impersonation scam⁴

Another impersonation scam tactic is using the names of famous people to get you to buy certain products or send someone money. These scams can be quite elaborate, including fake news articles and social media profiles.

Bank or money service provider impersonation scam⁴

If you're receiving messages from someone falsely presenting themselves as your bank, you're dealing with a bank impersonation scam. Scammers usually try to trick their victims into making a payment or clicking a link to install malware on their phone.

Business email impersonation scam⁴

This type of impersonation scam occurs when scammers gain access to an organisation’s emails. They then pose as trusted employees, contact clients and customers and ask them for payments. Another tactic involves changing banking details on invoices and diverting payments to scammer accounts.

Friends or family impersonation scam⁴

This is one of the trickiest impersonation scams, as fraudsters pretend to be someone you know. They use various methods, but what they all have in common is posing as your loved ones, desperate for money.

Investment scam⁵

This impersonation scam involves criminals posing as investment companies and offering lucrative investment options. In addition to using pressure and marketing tactics, they sometimes use fake data to make it seem like your investment is growing.

Fake mobile apps scam⁶

Fake apps can also be seen as a form of impersonation scam, since criminals try to mimic legitimate apps in order to steal your information. They’re usually spread through third-party app stores, so make sure you stick to the official ones.

Cybersquatting⁷

Cybersquatting is the unauthorised registration of domain names that mimic existing brands and trademarks. Scammers often use these domains to sell counterfeit products of the original brand. This scam typically occurs when businesses fail to secure related domain names.

Typosquatting⁷

Similar to cybersquatting, typosquatting involves the registration of domain names with slight variations of existing ones. This scam relies on users accidentally visiting these sites, where they may receive malware or purchase products they never receive.

How to spot an impersonation scam¹

There are several ways to spot an impersonation scam.

Urgency

First of all, if you're being asked for money urgently, you could bea victim of impersonation fraud. If you're also receiving these messages from an unknown number, they may not be authentic. These scams rely on you acting impulsively and out of fear, so make sure to read each message carefully.

Being asked to move funds

Another telltale sign is being asked to transfer money from your account to another for ‘safekeeping’, or demanding payment to an authority like the police or HMRC. Scammers may, for instance, try to convince you that the police need to analyse your account as part of an ongoing investigation.

Requests for sensitive information

Finally, if you're being asked for personal details, such as your passwords or account information, it's a red flag. Banks and other trustworthy organisations would never request this over the phone.

How to protect yourself from impersonation scams⁸

Since impersonation scams often rely on urgency, make sure you don’t rush into anything. Read each message carefully and wait before you respond, even if you’re asked to react quickly.

You could also make sure that your phone and computer have good antivirus software and the latest security updates. This could help you in case you click on some unsafe links or download suspicious attachments.

Finally, look for typos. Some fraudsters buy website domains with names similar to existing ones and use them to scam people.

To be extra cautious, reach out independently to the company or person the message, call or email is claiming to be for confirmation. Never click on links or reply if it seems suspicious or you are unsure.

What to do if someone impersonates you?

If someone is pretending to be you online, make sure you tell the people around you that this is happening. If they hear it directly from you, they’re less likely to fall for the scam.

Depending on how the scam is being conducted, you should also report the impersonation. If someone has created a fake social media account, you can report it to the platform's support team. Ask friends and family to also report the account.

In the UK, you can also forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and text messages to 7726.

Finally, file a report with the UK police, via Action Fraud.

How to report an impersonation scam to Wise

If you suspect that you’ve been a victim of an impersonation scam, there are a few steps to take in reporting this to Wise.

This should be done immediately if you’ve been scammed by a Wise user or if someone made a payment using your Wise account.

You can file a report easily via the Wise app. We’ve outlined steps below but read our detailed Wise help article on this topic for more information:

1. Login to your Wise account
2. Select the transfer from your activity that you want to report and it will bring up the transaction
3. Select the question mark symbol "?" on the top right hand corner
4. Depending on the type of transaction, you'll see some options:

• I’ve submitted a dispute. When will I hear back?
• I want a refund
• I was charged multiple times
• I don’t recognise this
• Something else

In most cases you will want to select “I don’t recognise this”.

1. Select the above option, and then “Submit a dispute” to report your scam
2. Provide as much detailed information as possible

We'll get back to you as soon as we can. However, get in touch with us immediately if:

• You have difficulties using the above self-service flow
• You’ve been scammed by a Wise user
• You believe somebody else made a payment using your Wise account

Once you have reported the scam to Wise, you can file a police report. Wise will always help the police with their investigation when they reach out to us.

Things we'll never ask our Wise customers to do

If you are contacted by Wise, we will never:

• Ask you to pay deposits to unfreeze your money
• Ask you to put money into an account in order to ‘re-activate’ it
• Ask you to move your money from your main account, to a ‘safe’ account
• Create an account on your behalf, using information you send us, or make payments or transfers on your behalf
• Ask you to download software to allow us to make payments via your device

How Wise works to protect customers from scams

Now that we’ve covered the essentials of impersonation scams, you should know how to recognise them better and protect yourself.

Wise also does everything to protect you from all types of fraud, including impersonation scams. Our security operations team continuously runs vulnerability scans to safeguard your money and data, while two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection for all transactions.

We’re also on a mission to educate our customers on the different scams to watch out for, including impersonation scams. Learn more about Wise’s recent scam campaign activity.

Useful resources

In case you’re worried about impersonation scams, here are some useful resources you could look into:

• Action Fraud
• How to Stay Safe When Using Wise
• Take Five to Stop Fraud
• CIFAS
• London Mutual Credit Union
• Barclays
• Gov.uk

Sources used:

1. Take Five to Stop Fraud - impersonation fraud
2. Britannica - definition of impersonation
3. Claims.co.uk - the law on impersonation others
4. ScamWatch - impersonation scams
5. ScamWatch - investment scams
6. Norton - fake app scams
7. Red Points - impersonation scams
8. Scotiabank - protecting yourself from impersonation scams
9. Gov.uk - avoiding and reporting impersonation scams

Sources last checked on date: 06-Nov-2024