Courier Fraud Warning
Added on 06 March 2020
Please be aware of fraudsters targeting elderly and vulnerable victims.
What is it?
Courier Fraud occurs when a fraudster contacts victims by telephone claiming to be a police officer, bank official or work for the government including HMRC. The caller sounds plausible and may confirm the victim's name and address, basic information which can be obtained easily.
There are a couple of different ways in which people are then defrauded.
In some instances, after trust has been gained, the fraudster will claim money has been withdrawn from the victim's account by staff within the bank. They persuade them to go to their local branch to take out a large sum of money from their account. The fraudsters then send someone to collect the money from the victim's home address “as evidence”.
In other cases, we are aware that the victim is encouraged to “transfer money to a ‘Safe Account’ ” – Banks nor Police will EVER ask you to do this and the phrase SAFE ACCOUNT is a sure fire confirmation this is a fraud!
And finally, sometimes the victim will be allegedly contacted by a Police Officer regarding suspicious transactions on their account and advised that we need to send an unmarked car to collect their banks cards personal information to help the investigation.
Police nor banks will ever contact people in this way. If you get a call like this HANG UP. If you need to contact your bank to check, wait a couple of minutes before dialling out, or use a different line altogether.
We are asking people to remain vigilant. Please would you pledge to #Tell2 elderly neighbours or relatives who may not have access our community alerts and advise them of this advice – please don’t assume everyone knows, we sadly are dealing with a number of victims who have lost thousands. Help us to protect others.
Further advice about the scam can be found on the Action Fraud website - https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/courier-fraud
Did you know you can report crime and incidents using our online portal. Please visit https://www.leics.police.uk/ Click on “REPORT”.
In an emergency dial 999
Please do not report crime or Incidents via 'Neighbourhood Link' as the messages are not always monitored.
Rebecca Spilane, Fraud Vulnerability Officer Economic Crime Unit Leicestershire Police