Security & scams

How the scams of the moment work and how to stop them, how to keep your accounts and devices in your hands, and step-by-step help when something has already gone wrong. Written for everyone, checked against official sources.

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An older couple sitting together on a sofa at home, smiling as they look at a smartphone the woman is holding

Photo: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash

Just happened? Start here

Step-by-step help, most urgent first. If money has left your account, call your bank now on the number printed on your card or in its official app.

  1. I've been scammed: what should I do in the first 30 minutes?Call your bank, block cards, secure your email, keep evidence, report it: the first steps after a scam, by payment method, for Italy, the UK and the US.
  2. Where do I report a scam?The official places to report a scam in 36 countries, the evidence to keep, which body handles what, and what to do if the scammer is abroad.

Not sure it is a scam? Check the message or call in eleven questions

Scams

3 guides

Fake messages, calls, shops and parcels: how the common scams work and how to spot them before you pay.

Accounts & passwords

2 guides

Passwords, password managers, two-step login and passkeys: keeping email, bank and social accounts in your hands.

Smart devices at home

Cameras, TV boxes, speakers, smartwatches for children: what to check before you buy and how to keep them safe. These guides live in Learn.

Related terms in the glossary

All terms
  • VPNA virtual private network: an encrypted tunnel over a public network that makes remote devices or sites appear to be on one private network.
  • End-to-end encryptionEncryption where data is protected from the originating device to its final recipient, so that intermediaries such as brokers, gateways and cloud services cannot read it.
  • EncryptionTransforming data with a key so that only parties holding the right key can read it, protecting confidentiality both on the wire and in storage.
  • BotnetA network of compromised devices under an attacker's remote control, used to launch attacks, send spam or mine cryptocurrency without the owners' knowledge.
  • Network segmentationDividing a network into isolated zones so that devices in one zone cannot reach systems in another without passing through a controlled boundary.