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09/06/2014
Police Warn Of Courier Fraud
The PSNI is warning the public to be aware of courier fraud, following a number of reports made by members of the public.
Courier fraud involves scammers telephoning the victim purporting to be someone from their bank, the police or other law enforcement agency. They then convince the person into revealing their PIN or credit card details.
Detective Constable Stephen Crooks, from Organised Crime Branch, said: "The police or bank will never ask you for your PIN or credit card. They will never ask you to withdraw amounts of cash from your bank or bureau de change.
"If you are contacted by someone who asks for these, hang up. Then use a different line to report the call to police on 101 or allow at least five minutes for the line to automatically clear.
"A common scam is when suspects typically purport to be a police officer and request that you assist in an investigation into corrupt bank staff or counterfeit money being passed. They may also tell you that you may be entitled to a reward. Law enforcement agencies would never ask you to do this or offer a reward under these circumstances."
Ofcom’s Director in Northern Ireland, Jonathan Rose, said: "Over the last year, a number of telephone providers have made changes to their networks to cut the time a phone line remains open to a couple of seconds. This action has stopped fraudsters from being able to stay on the line to impersonate a victim’s bank or the police – a key feature of how this scam works. We have also been working to drive awareness among consumers to help them avoid falling victim to courier fraud.
"It’s very encouraging to see this work paying dividends, with more fraudsters being foiled in their attempts to scam people. But we’re fully aware that there’s more work to do to prevent courier fraud completely. We are continuing our work in this area to ensure that the necessary technical changes are fully implemented across the telecoms sector as quickly as possible."
(IT/CD)
Courier fraud involves scammers telephoning the victim purporting to be someone from their bank, the police or other law enforcement agency. They then convince the person into revealing their PIN or credit card details.
Detective Constable Stephen Crooks, from Organised Crime Branch, said: "The police or bank will never ask you for your PIN or credit card. They will never ask you to withdraw amounts of cash from your bank or bureau de change.
"If you are contacted by someone who asks for these, hang up. Then use a different line to report the call to police on 101 or allow at least five minutes for the line to automatically clear.
"A common scam is when suspects typically purport to be a police officer and request that you assist in an investigation into corrupt bank staff or counterfeit money being passed. They may also tell you that you may be entitled to a reward. Law enforcement agencies would never ask you to do this or offer a reward under these circumstances."
Ofcom’s Director in Northern Ireland, Jonathan Rose, said: "Over the last year, a number of telephone providers have made changes to their networks to cut the time a phone line remains open to a couple of seconds. This action has stopped fraudsters from being able to stay on the line to impersonate a victim’s bank or the police – a key feature of how this scam works. We have also been working to drive awareness among consumers to help them avoid falling victim to courier fraud.
"It’s very encouraging to see this work paying dividends, with more fraudsters being foiled in their attempts to scam people. But we’re fully aware that there’s more work to do to prevent courier fraud completely. We are continuing our work in this area to ensure that the necessary technical changes are fully implemented across the telecoms sector as quickly as possible."
(IT/CD)
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