What Being the Victim of a Telephone Scam Has Taught Me About Myself.
Are you a busy parent who's constantly juggling work, household chores, and your children's needs?
If so, then like me, you know that receiving an unexpected call can be a major disruption to your day. But what if that call is from a scammer trying to trick you out of your hard-earned money or sensitive personal information? Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday.
I was doing the school run and was parked with my engine off waiting to begin the 5 min ferry journey to my daughter’s school.
My phone goes and to begin with, I hesitate but not recognising the number I figure it will be very quick as it’s probably a wrong number, I’ve had a few of those recently.
So I answer to the voice of a very well-spoken man with a British accent telling me I have been the victim of a fraudulent payment on my account. He didn’t want any personal info but just needed to confirm my details and everything will be sorted as the bank had caught the payment before anything had happened.
Ok, I say, thinking I’m not giving any details away. He asks a few general questions and then reads my back the information on my entire card including the 3 digits on the back. Not thinking and in a rush to now leave, I say yes, so what do I do now? that’s it and he hangs up. Only then do I realise I’ve been scammed.
Feeling like an idiot I called my bank right away and cancelled my card and blocked my account. Thankfully other than a few subscriptions I need to update and a new card on its way, I feel I may have avoided something that could have been far worse.
I do now have to be far more aware of other scammers contacting me in future because undoubtedly he would have sold all my personal information and data that will now be on in internet waiting to be used again and again. I feel like a complete idiot!
But this experience has taught me some valuable lessons. Mainly, not to answer my phone when I’m in a rush. But, also that like many other mums out there I’m sure, I often find myself trying to multi-task my way through the day. I very often find myself thinking crazy things like: “if only there was a way I could shower, brush my teeth and eat breakfast at the same time, then I could save myself at least 10 minutes every morning. Who knows what I could get done in that amount of time?” yes I know what you are thinking, Crazy Lady!! I am thinking it too, I’m not sure how I ended up like this, it has just slowly crept up on me over the last 2 years. Gone are the days when I can just sit down and calmly plan my day ahead.
I feel like I’m on the go 24/7 and I have just had a very real reminder of why that is not a healthy way to be.
So what can I do about this?
Well, being the creative type that I am I found out what I should have done and then made myself a small printable Scammers Checklist to keep with me at all times.
I even laminated mine. Don’t judge me!
Feel free to download it and share it with everyone you know.
The next thing I have learnt is that I really need to slow the hell down. Since coming out of the pandemic and back into work, now that my little girl is at preschool I find myself trying to fit more and more into my days. My mum friends agree, a school day just isn’t long enough to get everything done.
But that is the whole problem here, it’s not the time I have maybe it is how I think about it. If I didn’t have so much going on in my head every morning, maybe I wouldn’t have been caught off guard.
I know that life as a parent is busy, and is always going to be busy, but I’ve decided to give myself a break from emotionally beating myself up all the time for not getting everything done every day, and instead slow down a little and enjoy my life more.
And keep the checklist close by. ;)
I researched as much information about scamming in the UK as I could and then got some help organising it into something useful by some clever AI tech. So, grab a cuppa and take a few minutes to learn how to safeguard yourself and your loved ones from the dangers of telephone scams, and hopefully, you will do far better at spotting a scammer, if you find yourself in a similar situation as me. You can read this blog post here. ‘Scam Call Checklist Explained! - Everything you need to know about telephone scams and how to avoid them.’