Timberscombe School Friday News 18.11.2022

Police Warning

Please take a few moments to read the below alert and view the attached files.

A resident received a call from someone who claimed to be a London police officer working in Paddington station (which closed some time ago). Fortunately, the resident became suspicious and hung up, but we want to remind you to be wary of callers who claim to be a police officer working in a serious crime fraud unit in London or from another force.

They claim that your bank account has been compromised or that the bank card has been cloned. The purpose of these calls is to get people’s bank account details.

The offenders may also say that they are investigating your bank and need help to test the cash for counterfeit money. Victims are asked to withdraw a considerable amount of cash which will then be collected by a courier for “testing”. Of course it always fails and you never see the money again.

These criminals can be very convincing and will sometimes pass your call to another “department” which is another fraudster. They may also ask you to contact 101 or 999 to confirm their identity. In this case the culprit doesn’t hang up, so the line remains connected at their end, any other call you make is answered by them. If asked to do this, hang up and wait at least five minutes before making a call or ideally use another phone if possible.

It is important to note that the police do not accept Amazon vouchers or any other type of gift card as a form of payment, so if the offenders ask for these it WILL be a scam.

Attachments:

• courier-fraud-information.pdf
• safely-shopping-online.pdf