When you or your kids see an ad on a social media site, always make sure it’s from a reputable company. Check reviews for the company, the comments on their previous posts, and their terms and conditions in case you need to refund your items.

If a social media post is claiming to sell an item for much cheaper than the item is worth, it’s most likely because the post is from a fraudulent company. Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is! Trustpilot is also a great place to check the quality of a company, if you see a poor score or lots of negative reviews do not make a purchase with them.

Before entering your card details, double and triple check the website where you’re making the payment. There should be a padlock symbol in the browser frame window which appears when you login or register - if this appears on the page rather than the browser, it may indicate a fraudulent website. The web address should begin with https://, the ‘s’ stands for secure. However, some websites can get around this and still include the ‘s’ symbol, so always check that the site can be trusted. You can do this by looking for things like a privacy policy, a business address and landline, or a company number. The company number should be displayed alongside the place of registration on their website, complying with UK legislation.

All UK limited companies must register with Companies House, who will make the company information publicly available on their website. It's free to check this in case you want to make sure a company is a legitimately registered company.

If you are opting to save your debit, credit, or Rooster Card on the website, make sure that you are not signing up for any recurring subscriptions (unless you want to!). Some websites will offer you discounted prices on their items if you sign up to a membership, which they will specify at checkout. If you are unsure if you have signed up for something like this at the same time as your payment has gone through, another £0.00 authorisation will show on your transactions.

You can visit the NatWest Security Centre here to find out more information on what you and your kids can do to avoid falling for online scams and fraud.

If your child has used their Rooster Card to pay for something you don’t think is quite right, don’t worry. Get in touch with us in-app or by emailing hello@roostermoney.com and we’ll help you get it sorted.

You should also reach out directly to the Social Media platform the item was purchased on, to make them aware of the user and to see if they can help you directly also.