Police warn of scammers new tactics - The Redditch Standard

Police warn of scammers new tactics

Redditch Editorial 28th Jun, 2016 Updated: 18th Oct, 2016   0

POLICE are warning residents not to be taken in by new scam callers who claim to be from online retailers, computer or phone companies.

Officers have received several reports of phone calls from people claiming to be from BT or Talk Talk, and telling the potential victim they are owed a refund or have a virus which requires them to access their computer.

Once they do this they have can get the person’s bank details and steal from them.

An elderly woman in her 80s was targeted by one of these fraudsters on June 18 who asked her to download software to get her personal information for a refund.




A similar incident happened on June 22 where the victim was told they were owed £200 by Talk Talk and needed access to their laptop but the victim only realised later on and the scammers had attempted to take money out of their account but luckily the banked prevented the transfer.

Another on June 22 told the victim they would need to transfer £750 to help BT ambush the hackers who had gotten into their laptop but the person was not fooled and called the police.


Other incidents involved cars being advertised for sale. when the victim agrees to buy the car via email they then receive a message from Amazon Payments and/or Amazon Flexible Payment Service stating that their money will be held in an ‘escrow account.

These accounts are actually controlled by the scammed and used to take the money for a car which in fact does not exist.

Police are now warning people :

• Do not allow remote access to your computer.

• Hang up the phone when you identify that the call is uninvited.

• Never divulge passwords or pin numbers.

• BT, Microsoft, other computer companies or someone on their behalf will never call you.

Podcasts

Now, every week, you can also listen to a roundup of Redditch Standard Local News.

Buy Photos

Buy photos online from the Redditch Standard newspaper.

Reader Travel

Check out all of the latest reader travel offers to get your hands on some free gifts.

YouTube

Check out the latest videos on our YouTube channel.