BERLIN, GERMANY, August 15, 2022 / -- There have been more than 30 reported incidents across Scotland between October 2021 and January 2022 where victims were contacted by phone by someone claiming to be from their bank and told to hand over funds or withdraw cash to give to a police officer. A fraud involving people impersonating police officers has duped its victims out of more than £300,000.
If anyone gets a call from someone claiming to be the police or a bank official, it can be challenging to say no and decline their demands. And especially after targets have been victims of the scam before and police or bank officials have helped them. But some scammers pretend to be the police or bank officials and manipulate people's trust to steal their money.
WHAT ARE POLICE OR BANK IMPERSONATION SCAMS?
In December 2020, police warned people in the UK of the scammer impersonating a PSNI fraud liaison officer and asking for people's bank details.
According to data given to UK Finance by its banking members, there were 8,220 cases involving criminals impersonating the police or a bank in the first six months of the year – a year-on-year rise of 94%. These scams led to just over £36m in theft.
A further 6,730 cases in 2020, costing £21m, involved fraudsters imitating other trusted organizations such as banks – 74% more than in 2019.
James Thompson, an expert in the fund recovery process, currently working at cyber-forensics.co, explains it further," " Scammers call, text or email, reach out to victims who have already lost their funds, and claim to be police officers or bank officials. They lie that they're involved in a confidential investigation and require victims' help."
They ask to withdraw some cash at the branch and hand it over to an ''undercover officer'' for investigation or any such purpose. They arrange for an ''undercover officer'' or a ''bank official'' or courier to pick up the cash. Victims are told they'll be compensated after the inquiry. Victims hand over the money but never hear from them again.
The scammers also say that as this is confidential, victims are not supposed to tell anyone about this. They keep them caught up in their lie and move on to scam another naïve individual.