Signs of courier fraud to be aware of after man persuaded to hand over £15,000 to caller purporting to be police officer

We are urging people to be aware of courier fraud after a man was persuaded to hand over £15,000.

Over the course of three days on January 20, 21 and 24, a man in his 80s from the Salisbury area received a phone call asking him to withdraw the large sum of money to assist an investigation in relation to his bank account.

A man then attended his home address to collect the cash.

We are currently conducting enquiries in relation to this incident and would like to hear from anyone who may have seen a suspicious vehicle in the Winterbourne Gunner area on the evenings of these dates.

We would urge anyone with information to call 101 and quote crime reference number 54230009641.

A Wiltshire Police spokesperson said: “Courier fraud occurs when a fraudster contacts victims by telephone purporting to be a police officer or bank official. To substantiate this claim, the caller might be able to confirm some easily obtainable basic details about the victim such as their full name and address.

“The caller may also offer a telephone number for the victim to telephone or ask the victim to call the number on the back of their bank card to check that they are genuine. In these circumstances, either the number offered will not be genuine or, where a genuine number is suggested, the fraudster will stay on the line and pass the victim to a different individual.

“On this occasion, the fraudster claimed to be an officer from the Metropolitan Police and told the man his card had been compromised. He told the man to withdraw money to help with the investigation.

“These individuals are very convincing and have various different tactics to gain your trust.”

Please remember:
• Your bank and the police will never ring and ask you to verify your PIN, withdraw cash or purchase high-value goods. They’ll also never come to your home to collect your card, cash or purchased items. If you get a call like this, end the call.
• If you get a call from your bank or the police, make sure you know who the person is before handing over any personal details. You can do this by calling your bank (the number on the back of your card) or the police (101) on a different phone line.
• To get a different line, use a phone owned by a family member, friend or neighbour. This is because scammers can keep phone lines open after pretending to hang up. So while you think you’re making a new phone call, the line is still open to the scammer, who pretends to be someone from your bank or the police.
• Depending on your bank, the security questions they ask may be different, but they’ll never ask you to authorise anything by entering your PIN into your phone.
• Never send money abroad to a person you've never met or to anyone you don’t actually know and trust.
• Likewise, never agree to keep your online relationship a secret. This is a ploy to get you not to tell your family and friends, who’ll see the scam for exactly what it is.

For more advice please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk