Kent Police is warning people to be aware of scam calls from fraudsters pretending to be police officers.
Residents in Ramsgate and Whitstable have been targeted.
This is known as a Courier Fraud. The fraudsters may claim to be from Kent or another police force, use any name, fake badge numbers, or claim to be from actual police stations.
Recent fake identities used:
· DC Bryan Harrison EK41999 – Hammersmith Station
· DC Andrew Phillips 655021 – Hammersmith Police
· DC Garroway 275308 – Hammersmith Station
· A DS from Kent Police
The callers may know your name and address and claim that your bank account is compromised, that someone is in custody or they need your help with a police investigation.
They will try to convince you to withdraw large sums of cash, buy gift cards, foreign currency, or high-value goods and/or hand over your bank card
They may say an undercover officer will collect the items from your home.
They might even tell you to lie to bank staff, claiming they’re “in on it.”
Real police officers will never ask for your bank details, ell you to withdraw cash or buy goods or ask you to lie to anyone.
The ABC to protect yourself:
Don’t assume a caller is genuine, even if they know your details.
Don’t just believe them, criminals can fake caller ID to look like police or bank numbers.
Confirm everything. Hang up. Use a different phone. Call 101 to check if the call was real.
If a courier arrives at your home call 999 immediately
If this has happened to you call your bank and report it to Kent Police on 101.
Another new low for scumbags !.
I would like to think that people would easily see through this one., saying that unfortunately some elderly folk can be quite gullible to today’s ways of doing things.
Not remotely new-they have been covering these cases on Scam Interceptors & other nationally televised shows for years now. Not just the elderly either-but often younger people who do everything on their phones & will click on links, or believe anything they are told without engaging their brain first.
It takes the person to totally dive into a fantasy world, as aside from the absurdity of ‘police’ from one part of the country saying they need to use somebody in another part of the country hundreds of miles away as often happens, they usually tell them that everybody at their bank branch is a scammer in on it as well.
Having watched these shows & seen the team finally get though to the victims to explain it is a scam & not to hand send any money-which the person agrees not to & then they do exactly that at the post office-sending off hundreds or thousands of pounds to post office boxes etc the next morning-having already taken the money out before or after the BBC call you just cannot help some people.
Nothing to do with today’s world either-people were falling for basic mail scams long before the internet was around. My favourite one was the letter/advert saying how to make hundreds/thousands of pounds per week stuffing envelopes-all you had to do was send an SAE & something like 10 quid for the details, rather than just taking the marks cash you would then get their ‘leaflet to success’ in your SAE telling you all you had to do was take out ads/send letters telling people how to make vast sums stuffing envelopes & watch the cash roll in!
The banks are countering these scams by closing all their branches at record pace. In a few years it will just be post offices they can get the money out at.
The clue is in the word, impersonating, how can you sucessfully impersonate a police officer. I have forgotton what they even look like.