What does Courier Fraud look like?
The fraudsters claim to be calling from the Police, usually from London Police stations including Paddington, Charing Cross, New Scotland Yard and Epsom. They often claim to be calling from fraud departments within the Police, such as the “Serious Fraud Squad” or “Major Fraud Team”. Victims have reported that the callers often have South of England, Cockney and Birmingham accents. A small number of victims have reported that the fraudsters have Indian and Middle Eastern accents. The callers are not usually local.
The fraudsters begin the call by introducing themselves to the victim with a fake rank, name and collar number.
Next, the fraudsters provide the victim with a fake story as to why they’re calling. Common stories include:
- Money is being taken out of the victim’s account
- Somebody is using the victim’s credit/debit card
- The victim’s credit/debit card has been cloned
- Fraudulent activity detected in the victim’s bank account
- The victim needs to purchase golden bars/nuggets to help process an ongoing fraud investigation
To attempt to convince the victim that the call is genuinely from the Police, they instruct the victim to key in the digits “999” or “101” into their keypad (without ending the current call). The fraudsters then pass the phone to an accomplice who pretends that they have just been transferred the call, whereby they verify the Rank, Name and Badge Number of the initial caller. Sometimes the second person pretends to be an employee of the victim’s bank if the context of the call has already proceeded in that direction.
Our ask of you…
Please take the time to share this message and the attached leaflets with those who are vulnerable. If you have colleagues working on the ground in communities, please educate them to ‘spot the signs’ and encourage them to share these messages with older people who are at-risk.
