BASINGSTOKE'S MP is urging her constituents to ensure they are taking all precautions to ensure they do not fall victim to fraud.

Maria Miller held a debate in the House of Commons last month to call for a review of how money laundering regulations operate and for clarity as to who holds banks to account for the way these regulations work in practice, after she was contacted by a constituent who was a victim of banking fraud.

As a result of this debate, the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign was set up.

Take Five Week – which has been running all this week – has been created to help empower people to protect themselves against financial fraud. This includes phone-based scams, email and text message scams as well as online fraud.

The scheme urges customers to help stay safe from fraud by following simple advice such as a genuine bank or organisation will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, full password or to move money to another account.

Other advice is only give out personal or financial details to use a service that you have given your consent to, that you trust and that you are expecting to be contacted by and never automatically click on a link in an unexpected email or text.

Mrs Miller said: “Criminals are now very sophisticated, so it is more important than ever that people are aware of the advice from Take Five on how to protect themselves from becoming a victim.

“Fraudsters will do all they can to appear like the real deal, so always be on your guard for any calls, texts or emails out of the blue asking for your details. During Take Five Week we want to get the message across that it’s vital to stop and think before you give away any information.”

To find out more about the Take Five initiative visit takefive-stopfraud.org.uk.