If you’re not multi-tasking, you’re not maximising your productivity… If you’re not doing it all, you’re missing out… In today’s fast-paced world, taking a moment to stop has never felt so unnatural or less rewarding.

Social media platforms heighten this, reducing our attention span and priming us to react rather than take our time. This has weakened what we call ‘The Stop Muscle’ – our ability to stop, think and Take Five when we are asked for our personal or financial information.

Our latest Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign peak raises awareness of ‘The Stop Muscle’ and encourages you to start training it! In a world where scams are ever-evolving and increasingly sophisticated, it’s more important than ever for people to strengthen their ability to Take Five to stop and think.

We aim to engage and educate people on the benefit of stopping – and we’re using TikTok to do it. We have now launched our brand new TikTok channel and created a new Augmented Reality (AR) filter on TikTok so you can test how strong your ‘Stop Muscle’ is.

“When it comes to fraud, social media is now a key route that criminals use to target people. But it is the act of stopping that remains one of our most powerful defences against scams. We’re encouraging people to strengthen their ‘Stop Muscle’ and take a moment to stop and think when faced with potentially fraudulent situations.” – Giles Mason, Director of Campaigns at UK Finance

Keen to try out our filter? You’ll be given a series of pictures and have to determine whether it’s real or AI generated. You’ll gain one point for every correct answer but lose two points for every incorrect answer. By taking your time to get it right, you’re training your ‘Stop Muscle’ and seeing the benefit of taking your time.

With more than 25 million TikTok users in the UK and users spending on average 47 minutes per day on the platform, this new account gives us an opportunity to reach new audiences in new ways. We also know that criminals are increasingly using social media in their scams, so it’s essential to have helpful, actionable advice for people in this space.

Check out our video below to see our Stop Muscle Guesser in action.

Head to our TikTok channel now and try out the ‘Stop Muscle Guesser’ – see how your score stacks up and share your score with #StopMuscle.

What else can you do to keep safe on social media?

• Make sure your login details are secure and changed regularly.
• Be suspicious of any ‘too-good-to-be-true’ offers, product reviews or employment opportunities.
• Avoid clicking on any links from adverts or private chats (DM).
• Watch out for frequent typos, unexpected friend or message requests, impersonal introductions (e.g. “Hello!”) or messages from brand new profiles with a small number of following or friends.