A scam - also called fraud - is dishonest or illegal activity carried out by criminals to make money from organisations or individual people.  

In the past, a small number of our students have had significant amounts of money stolen through fraud: 

• Criminals have posed as someone working for a trusted organisation (for example, the University, British of foreign police or UK government departments).
• They asked- or demanded - our students to transfer money to other bank accounts.

Contacts were made by phone, email or social media.

If you're approached in this way, please take some time to consider if this is a genuine request

Protect yourself

Criminals can also use other methods of fraud. You can protect yourself by following this advice from the police:

Stop, challenge, protect

Take 5-minutes to read general advice about protecting yourself from fraud.

Think: SCAM

• Stop – after every communication you receive (phone calls, emails, social media or text messages), stop and take a few minutes to think about it.
• Chat – talk to trusted people about the communication.
• Add – add up all the evidence you have about the communication - your own thoughts and the thoughts of people you trust.
• Manage – report worries and problems to the police, your bank, college and family and friends.

Think ABC

• Never Assume the communication is genuine.
• Don’t Believe everything you hear.
• Always Confirm requests using separate contact details. For example, call a phone number on the company’s website.          

Beware of any communication from somebody who you don’t know. Beware of any communication that is out of the ordinary.

If you’re worried 

If you're worried about fraud or have doubts about communications you've received, students can email us for help at any time: fraud.support@durham.ac.uk