RESIDENTS have been urged to remain on their guard in order to deter fraudsters posing as bank workers.

Detective Sergeant David Hall of the North Wales Police Economic Crime Unit issued the advice this week along with recent true and concluded cases in which North Wales residents had been scammed.

He said: "Fraudsters rely on making you panic - and when people panic, that's when they make mistakes.

"One of the main ones we've seen is that they call their victim and say they're from their bank's fraud operations team and that they're seen unauthorised transactions on their account.

"They say they need to move the victim's money to another account and talk them through a series of actions which can include downloading an app onto their device.

"They can then access the person's device and go into their online banking and remove money.

"Or they'll just say you need to move this money to this account number and sort code, and they'll just do it thinking it's a safe account.

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"It's not until they put the phone down and think oh, that they realise.

"No bank will ever ask you to move money to a 'safe account' or download programmes to your device."

In 2022, the force received a report that a man in his 70s had received an unsolicited telephone call on his landline by suspect(s) purporting to be from his bank stating that his funds were at risk, and he needed to move them.  

The scammer called almost every other day and provided the victim him with amounts and accounts to pay the money in to.

Further to these calls the victim also received a letter in the post purporting to be from his bank with whom he holds his principal bank account.

Over a period of a few months the victim had been duped into moving monies from his account to others as supplied by the suspect.

In total it was predicted that £125,010 had been taken over nine transactions from two bank accounts.

A call blocker was installed on the victim’s landline to prevent any future unsolicited calls and thankfully the victim in this case received a full reimbursement from the banks.

DS Hall continued: "The impact of these crimes can be very difficult to quantify, because what might seem a small amount of money to one person might be a very large amount to someone else.

"Someone could lose £100, but that might be their money for the week.

"We've had cases where people have been asked to send selfies of themselves with their passports or driving licences, as well as bank cards, in the past.

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"No bank would ever ask you to do that - and they'll never ask you to send money or your bank card in the post, which we do have often."

In 2022, North Wales Police received information about a particularly sophisticated fraud case.

A woman in her 80s initially received an email purporting to be ‘DPD’ advising her that she needed to pay £3 delivery charge for a parcel. Believing this was genuine, the victim replied with her full card details.

This was followed by an unsolicited telephone call purporting to be the victims bank advising her that fraudulent activity had been identified on her account.

The victim was told to place her bank cards and pin numbers in a box, and they would arrange collection of them. Thinking this call was legitimate and that she was speaking with her bank the victim did as the suspect requested.

The suspect arranged a local North Wales taxi to collect the parcel from the victim and deliver it to Birmingham. The suspect making this booking purported the fare to be on behalf of their grandmother.

However the taxi driver became suspicious and fortunately engaged in conversation with the victim where he identified the parcel in fact contained the victims bank cards and pin numbers.

The advance fee taxi fare had in fact been paid using the victim’s bank card details which she used when paying the ‘DPD’ fee.

The fast-thinking interventions of the taxi driver on this occasion prevented the victim from being at a significant financial loss.

For more information on fraud prevention, visit: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/