NewsBiscuit guide to online scams

With the advent of the internet, fraudsters have increased their capacity to relieve ordinary people of their own hard earned cash. Newsbiscuit is happy to provide guidance on how to spot the more common scams.

email phishing scams

These are very common and often take the form of demands from organisations such as HMRC. No matter how authentic these scams look, ignore them. Do not click on any links, approach your local tax office or open any snail mail correspondence looking like it comes from HMRC. Unfortunately this common scam already affects many working people as company payroll departments are often targeted - check your payslip for 'deductions' which are sometimes named 'tax', sometimes 'NI', often both. For greatest security ask your payroll department to change your bank details to the Newsbiscuit current account number and we'll sort out the rest.

Romance scams

Fraudsters pretending to be public servants acting on your behalf are known to make overtures suggesting you vote for events that will directly take money out of your pocket and put it in theirs. Typically the scammers will present themselves as 'MPs' and will try to get you to vote yourself out of a trading block, using compelling scam lines like 'don't listen to experts'. You might feel these scammers are in love with you, you may think they have your best interest at heart, but trust us here at Newsbiscuit, they don't. Don't vote for anything they say, and do not vote for any person to represent you unless they are part of the Newsbiscuit Party. Because you know we love you.

Internet satire scam

The most insidious scam of all where satirists try to draw you into their web of deceit and try to extract your money and votes to make themselves rich at your expense. We don't have any hard examples of this type of scam, but be sure to sign up to Newsbiscuit.com for regular newsletters. Please leave your email address, bank account details and PIN number - just in case.

Customs officer explains why he believes the government is delaying applying import checks

Checks on imports are required to ensure goods entering a nation meet the required safety standards and any taxation due on them gets paid. Since Britain left the EU, however, no such checks have been applied and a date for implementation of import checks has been pushed back further.

Newsbiscuit asked HMRC to explain why the government appears reluctant to apply the checks and was told it's complicated.

'We have to work within the letter of the law,' explained a customs officer. 'The rules say we shouldn't allow anything rotten or harmful to enter Britain, so technically, if the government told us that checks needed to be applied, it would mean we would have to bar Tory MPs from returning from their holidays. With a bit of luck, the next government will insist we start checks asap.'

Nasa loses contact with Jacob Rees-Mogg

Nasa has announced that it has lost radio contact with Jacob Rees-Mogg who is believed to be billions of miles and hundreds of years away from Earth.

'It has always been difficult to make sense of data received from Mr Rees-Mogg and, at first, we thought we were still receiving information. But it turned out to be random noise.'

Mr Rees-Mogg is appearing on GB News.