Fraud victim contacts

Use the number on your provider’s website or app. They can freeze your service and block your phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity-(IMEI) so nobody else can use it. Type *#06# on your keypad to find your IMEI. It’s a unique 15-digit identifier that acts as a digital fingerprint for your device, used to identify it on cellular networks and protect it from theft.

If someone claiming to be from your bank asks you to move money, hang up and call 159. It works no matter which bank you use and helps shut down scam phone numbers and accounts.

Forward suspicious texts to 7726 — free of charge. Available for most UK mobile networks, the reporting service run by UK mobile network providers. Your mobile provider investigates and blocks fraud numbers.

Forward suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk — no message needed. The National Cyber Security Centre scans them for malicious links and can help disrupt scam activity. 

Report a website that doesn’t look right through the National Cyber Security Centre’s online form. Fraudulent sites are investigated and closed down. 

Apply for Cifas protective registration (charges apply), a marker against your name telling lenders you’ve been a victim of fraud— so extra identity checks are made for two years.

Report a stolen passport online at GOV.UK. It will be cancelled so nobody can travel on it. You’ll also need to inform the police. You can call them on 101  or 0300 123 2040.

Report and replace a stolen driving licence online at GOV.UK. The DVLA will cancel it so nobody else can use it.

Before opening an account or investing, check a bank or financial company is authorised on the FCA’s Firm Checker. It also warns you about cloned firms.