Author
DR Rob Gandy I UK
Unsurprisingly us GBoomers are seen as a ripe target by organised crime and other scammers. Therefore always be on the alert when you answer the telephone. The following guidance has been issued by East Sussex Police force1, but is relevant for throughout the UK.
If you have been contacted by telephone from someone claiming to be a Police Officer, please read this notice:
- The Police will NEVER contact you by telephone and ask you to disclose any details of your bank account.
- The Police will NEVER ask you to send them your bank cards.
- The Police will NEVER ask you to key your PIN numbers into the telephone keypad.
- The Police will NEVER ask you to transfer your funds between your accounts.
- The Police will NEVER ask you to pay cash into an account ‘for safe keeping’ or in the interests of an investigation into fraudulent activity within a bank.
- If you have been asked to do any of the above, please inform your bank and the Police at your local Police Station.
- You are URGED not to continue with the transaction that you have been asked to complete until the Police can confirm that the caller is genuine.
Of course, there are many scams that are perpetrated on all sorts of people, and it makes sense to mention some on GBoomer – but we can never be comprehensive. One is detailed below, but we intend to keep a lookout for new ones, and hope to flag them on this site.
If you have been contacted by telephone…
Beware of this Scam1
Gangs posing as police or bank employees ring people at home telling them there has been a fraud and to ring their bank.
But the criminal does not hang up, so when the victim tries to ring out they are still connected to the fraudster.
This scam has been around for a while, but it is still being used. For example, the Metropolitan Police alone has had 2,200 cases in a year; with victims losing £3.5m in its area in 2012. One person lost £155,000!
In many of these vishing frauds, banks say the victims willingly take the criminals through every security procedure, even entering PINs and transferring life savings into the fraudsters’ accounts.
The scam works by gaining people’s confidence over the phone and then encouraging them to divulge their bank details, hand over their cards, or even transfer money directly into an account of the fraudsters’ choosing.
Some advice from the experts is as follows:
If you have concerns about a call, phone the police non-emergency number 101 on a different telephone or allow at least five minutes for the line to clear
You should never give your PIN or bank card to anyone
Police and banks will never ask for your PIN or bank card. If you are contacted by someone who asks for these, hang up
More information is available on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25365698
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