This month Trudi Henderson, NatWest's community banker for Somerset, told Wells WI how to avoid becoming victims of frauds and scams.

Some 53 per cent of over 65s have experienced attempted scams although victims can be as young as 12, with children using passwords to play games online games. £5 billion to £10 billion a year is lost to crime through fraud, but only five per cent of people admit to having been scammed due to embarrassment at having been fooled.

Organised, predatory criminals use different methods. Sometimes they use befriending and grooming techniques to exploit vulnerable people via dating sites or online forums.

At other times they can be aggressive, forcing people to withdraw cash to pay for services offered on the doorstep, or threatening that phone or broadband services will be cut off unless payment is made.

The most common scams are: spoof payment requests; accounts being hacked to divert large payments being made to solicitors or contractors; text message fraud; and romance scams.

Many scams begin with a phone call, often from a caller impersonating someone in authority. If you are bothered by nuisance phone calls you can register with the Telephone Preference Service, use TrueCall or other call blocker devices, or ask your phone provider to block calls from unknown numbers.

If you are suspicious that a call may not be genuine and want to call your bank or the company to check, it is advisable to use a different phone such as your mobile to call them, or make a new call to a friend or relative, to check your landline is actually clear.

This is because the criminal may still be on the line even when you think you have ended the call.

Email scams are known as phishing. These emails usually contain a link that criminals hope you will click on.

Beware as the link may take you to a copycat version of a familiar-looking site, such as that of your bank, giving the criminal not only access to your data but also the ability to install malicious software and gain control of your computer. If suspicious, contact the company the email purports to be from.

Text scams are known as smishing. Bogus texts can even come through on the same thread as a genuine communication so beware of any links.

Personal data we've given to mailing lists, or genuine retailers, is stolen when their systems are hacked and our information is sold to other criminals on the black market.

This explains why nuisance calls or emails come in batches - a company that holds your details has had a security breach.

An easy way to check is by entering your email address into the website https://haveibeenpwned.com which shows which organisations that have your email have not looked after your data properly.

Trudi recommended we use an email address for online purchases that is different from our personal email, to minimise the potential risk.

Choose a hard password - a really good one combines different bits of personal information that a criminal wouldn't be able to guess.

Postal scams often come in the guise of an announcement of a having won a prize in a lottery or draw, suggesting you may be entitled to an inheritance.

They can look like very convincing personal letters, and probably ask you to make contact to provide your personal details.

Doorstep scams include rogue traders and distraction burglaries. The police can provide door stickers to let such opportunists know you won't answer the door to them.

Online scams include people buying large items like caravans or motorbikes on websites, and making an online payment, only to find the item never existed.

When browsing you can look for the padlock symbol in your browser next to the web address. If it is locked communications between you and the website are encrypted and secure.

You can also confirm you are on a secure site when the url (web address) for the page you are on begins with "https://" rather than "http://". Using a credit card rather than a debit card provides greater protection.

Trudi ended her talk by giving us her top five tips: never disclose your security details; don't assume everyone is genuine; don't be rushed; listen to your instincts; and stay in control.

There is no meeting in August. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 3 September at 7.30pm at the Wells and Mendip Museum, when our speaker will be Nancy Dodd, Freeman of the City of Wells.

New women are always welcome at Wells WI and can attend as guests before deciding whether to join. More details are on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Wellssomersetwi/

By Veronica Howe