Your Money: How to recognise the voice of a fraudster

IF someone calling you out of the blue sounded like a “nice person”, would you be more likely to trust them?

If the answer is yes, you could be falling straight into a fraudster’s trap.

But expert advice is now available to help you identify the sneaky tricks criminals are using to con people into handing over personal details such as passwords and PINs.

Wrongdoers are turning to old-fashioned methods to gain people’s trust and trick them into divulging information or even transferring cash directly into their bank account.

These devious con artists will simply call their intended victim up and persuade them to hand over their details.

Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) worked with a speech analyst who found common patterns in the language criminals used in such cases.

Dr Paul Breen identified six main patterns by listening to real-life scam phone calls.

Now his findings have been released as part of FFA UK’s Take Five campaign against fraud, which the major banks are backing.

Here are the six speech traits to listen out for when you pick up the phone:

• Using snippets of information about you, from different sources, to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
• Apologising for taking up your time – just to make you feel sympathetic towards them.
• Posing as someone in authority, such as a police officer or fraud detection manager.
• Refusing to rush, patiently trying to convince you they are legitimate.
• Welcoming your scepticism, acknowledging your concerns about being security conscious.
• Switching tempo, increasing or decreasing the pressure by creating a false sense of urgency or using understanding language.