Opinion: How easy it is to be a victim of online crime - and how I had a narrow escape

I’m sure many of you are like me, while warning older family and friends over the risks, believe that you are too aware of the signs of a scam to become a victim of cyber crime.

However, a recent experience left me shocked how easy it is to get caught out.

Anyone who knows me can vouch that I’ve never been a fan of online shopping: I like to make my own selection in the supermarket – in other words, reach to the back of the shelf for the best dates on products, and prefer to see clothes and other items before purchasing.

However, that’s not to say I never go online to shop but I do try to follow all the guidelines about checking it is a legitimate site and never giving out personal details.

Yet my recent experience was a wake up call to how clever the scammers are – or perhaps it’s more a case of how easy it is to fall victim when your guard is down.

I’d received an email from our IT team to say that some new equipment was due to be delivered so I was watching out for it to arrive in the coming days.

Then I had to pop through to Edinburgh for a meeting and was standing at the station checking emails when one popped up saying that I’d missed a delivery less than an hour earlier.

As I huffed and puffed about how did I not hear the knock at the door, I began to fill in the online form to rearrange the delivery.

Name and address were needed, then it asked for my date of birth which I did think was strange, but I filled in.

The next page said there was a £1.99 charge for redelivery and please fill in my bank details. That’s when the alarm bells started to ring.

In my rush, I failed to notice that this email was to my personal email address not my work one so it couldn’t be for this new equipment and I had nothing else ordered online.

Realising I’d had a lucky escape and after a few deep breaths, I followed the advice to forward the scam email to [email protected].

In future, I’ll be a lot more careful about giving out personal info in emails and online.

You can get more details on how to avoid being a victim of scams here