You may have seen on our social media warnings around scams and frauds where victims are cold-called via the telephone by fraudsters purporting to be Police Officers/Detectives from London Police Stations. While there are some variations, the general theme of the scam is that the caller tells the victim that they have someone in custody who appears to be in possession of a cloned bank card belonging to the victim. The victim is asked to provide their bank account or card details to verify. Another theme is that the police are investigating a fraud involving banks and the victim is asked to withdraw cash to assist with this investigation which will be collected from the home address of the victim by a courier or if the victim advises that they can’t get to a bank the fraudster may arrange for a taxi to collect the victim and take them to the bank.
All of these scenarios are scams designed to con vulnerable members of our society out of hard earned savings, sometimes several thousand pounds. Fortunately, in South Norfolk although we have been aware of this type of fraud very few people have actually handed over any money. This is largely due to the sharing of information and warnings distributed by Police via our social media platforms and key community contacts such as yourselves. These scams generally target a specific area before moving on but they invariably return several weeks later. We are aware of incidents in the Broadland, Breckland and Kings Lynn areas and in an effort to safeguard South Norfolk Communities I would be very grateful if you could distribute and display the attached leaflet/posters and general message that:
Police will NEVER call and ask for your bank account details, bank card or credit card details or ask you to withdraw cash to hand over to couriers. If you get a call like this hang up and report it to Police.
South Norfolk Engagement Officer
18/11/2020