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Phone call fraud scams people out of £23.6 m

22/06/2015

People have lost a total of £23.6 million over the past year to phone scams which encourage people to put their money into a fraudsters account.

Financial Fraud Action have discovered that this scam is the most widespread phone scam in the UK, as a new campaign is launched to target this.

Within the scam, the fraudsters try to convince the victim that fraud has been detected in their bank account and they have to move all their money into a “safe account” to stop themselves from losing it, which is then drained by a fraudster.

The criminals will use a range of techniques to make the phone call seem legitimate, such as technology to put a false caller number on the victim's phone display, matching a bank's phone number. They may also have information on the victim stolen from elsewhere.

A campaign by Neighbourhood Watch has been launched to fightback against the fraudsters, asked neighbours to alert people to the scams that could lead them to losing their life savings.

Katy Worobec, director of Financial Fraud Action UK said:
“More and more people have heard about the dangers of phone scams and how they work.

“Unfortunately there is still a significant number who are unaware that highly professional criminals are systematically targeting members of the public to deceive them out of their savings.

“We want to declare this week a time for all those who are aware of these threats to talk to relatives and neighbours and warn them about suspect calls and how to protect themselves.”

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