Wightfibre have shared a real-world story with their customers of a worrying scam that saw an Isle of Wight resident part ways with £6,000.
This one is particularly important to warn older or vulnerable relatives about.
The scam
One resident has reported receiving incessant phone calls about a compromise to her bank account – advising her to press a number to be put through to the Fraud Squad.
She did this as she was fed up with receiving the calls, the person who answered sounded very pleasant and plausible and advised her that they would open her another bank account and she had to go to the bank and withdraw the money £2000 at a time so as not raise suspicion.
She did this three times and posted the money to them. It wasn’t until she spoke with a family member that they realised it was a scam which they then reported to the police and the bank.
Remember your bank will NEVER contact you in this way and ask you to transfer money to a ‘safe’ account.
Report a scam
Wightfibre suggest that if you receive a call purporting to be your bank you should hang up, wait ten minutes then contact your bank by calling 159 and then select the correct option for your bank – this is a secure way of verifying if it really was your bank contacting you
To report a scam text – forward the message to 7726
To report a scam email – forward the message to [email protected]
To find out more about other scams visit their Website.
Image: annie spratt under CC BY 2.0
