Another scam warning issued as victims lose "all of the money in their accounts"

Friday 26 July 2024

Several victims have fallen for a recent scam which has cost them dearly, warn Guernsey Police - who have said the fraudsters are targeting individuals and businesses in their attempts to rob you.

A spokesperson for the force said "we would like to urge islanders to be cautious if anyone claiming to be from their bank calls them".

On this occasion, fraudsters are said to be using the global Microsoft outage last week as an excuse to call, and claim to be from people’s banks.

In particular they claim to be from either Natwest or HSBC, warned Guernsey Police.

"They walk the victim through ‘recovering their account’, often taking them to fake websites, which look nearly identical to banks’ websites, and claiming this process needs to be done because of the IT outages," said the police spokesperson.

"They may also ask you to instal malicious software on to your mobile device. They are reportedly very convincing."

So far, this scam has already resulted in several victims losing "all of the money in their accounts", said Guernsey Police.

Locally, the police spokesperson said everyone needs to exercise extreme caution and not give out any personal details if they receive a phonecall they suspect could be a scam.

"Police locally, and nationally, have seen a sharp rise in reports of these scams in the last week, and banks have been issuing their own security advice by text and email," said the spokesperson.

"Your bank will not call you directly and ask for security or two-step verification information. They will not ask you to install/uninstall applications on your phone or to take control of your phone remotely.

"If you have any suspicions about a call whatsoever, or if you were not expecting a call, hang up, and contact your bank through another means. Most bank cards have a phone number on them, for example.

"If you are a business, you should hang up and contact your bank’s relationship manager.

"If you have fallen victim to a scam, contact your bank’s fraud team immediately, or contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via actionfraud.police.uk."