New “Number Spoofing” fraud alert
29/10/2014
Criminals have started to use a new technique to try and get peoples bank details called “number spoofing”.
Financial Fraud Action UK’s (FFA UK) have advised that the scam involves criminals cloning a telephone number of an organisation they are trying to impersonate, such as a bank, police officers or other trusted companies to make the victim believe they are talking to someone who can be trusted. They then attempt to get the victim to hand over their life savings into a holding account or to reveal their bank details so the criminals can access their account themselves.
The criminal will then gain the person’s trust by drawing their attention to the number, claiming that this is proof of their identity, before trying to defraud them. Businesses are also being targeted, as well as some well off individuals.
FFA UK intelligence unit – the Financial Fraud Bureau – has reported that the scam has become increasingly common in recent weeks. Whilst the technology needed to spoof someone’s number has existed for years, only recently have criminals begun using it to defraud people.
Commenting, Craig Jones, spokesperson for FFA UK said:
“Number spoofing is becoming increasingly common and it’s not difficult for the criminals to fake a caller ID. So if a number appears on your phone’s caller ID display, you shouldn’t assume you know where the call is being made from. Remember that if a caller is trying to draw your attention to the number on your phone display, it’s very unlikely the call is genuine as there is no legitimate reason to point it out.”
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