Celebrities enrol at the Scam Academy – words Alexa Wang

We all get scam emails on a daily basis. Some are better than others of course. We scoff at the more absurd ones written in bad English with dodgy logos and such. But some are becoming so much more cunning and even personalised.

But it’s not just by email that scammers are trying to part us from our hard earned money. The good old phone is one of the main ways that criminals get one over on us.

The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit set up by the police are on a mission to get us all to learn more about how these scammers operate so we’re all that little bit more aware and so can fight back. Their latest video is part of the Take Five series where celebrities learn techniques that criminals use and what to do when faced with this situation. This video features Carol Vorderman, Rufus Hound and Donna Air who learn how persuasive and believable these con artists can be when they call us at home or on the go.

The celebrities become students of the Scam Academy and are put through their scamming paces by three top experts from the fraud sector including Alexis Conran from BBCs The Real Hustle. They try out the techniques for themselves by calling unsuspecting members of the public to see how they work. They pretend to be calling for a magazine called Top Gadget offering people free gadgets in return for reviews. Will it work? The results take the celebrities aback. The idea is to get the message across to ‘Take Five’ before we give any details out. Is it a genuine call, email or text?

Rufus Hound: “I decided to get involved in the Take Five campaign as my wife and I have been victims of fraud ourselves. I couldn’t believe how far these scammers will go to lure financial and personal details from people. Hopefully this campaign will raise awareness of a serious issue and encourage people to Take Five before they give out any financial and personal details.”