Extracted this from a flyer sent out by a bank.


Telephone Scams
The courier scam
* A fraudster calls you posing as your bank, a police officer or an official from another organization.
* They advise you to call your bank or 999 to verify their call
*However, the fraudster doesn’t disconnect the call and stays on your line tricking you into believing you are on a new call and connected to your bank or the police
*The fraudster will then convince you to enter your PIN details into the phone and tells you that a courier will be sent to collect your card
*The fraudster now has your PIN. So once they collect your card they can withdraw cash and spend in retail outlets.

Requests to withdraw cash
*Some fraudsters pose as police officers to persuade you to visit your local branch and withdraw funds from your account. They’ll tell you that you’re helping with a police investigation.
*The fraudster will tell you not to tell the staff at the branch and lie about the real reason for the withdrawal.
*Once withdrawn the money is collected in person from you by a courier or the fraudster themselves.
*Some fraudsters might ask you to make a high value purchase, for example a watch, which is taken by the fraudster.

Request to transfer funds
*Another popular telephone scam involves a fraudster calling you, again posing as your bank or another organization and getting you to call back for confirmation.
*They tell you that you’re at risk of fraudulent activity and must transfer your funds into a ‘safe’ account.
*You will often be pressured to act immediately.
*The safe account is actually the fraudster’s account, so your money is sent directly to the fraudster.

Other scams to be aware of

Buying scams
* These scams are where you find an item online at a reasonable price
*However after talking to or emailing the seller, you are told that the item (such as a car) can’t be seen in person. But they’ll persuade you to transfer the money to secure the item.
*Sometimes they send you a website link to send the payment to. This is to make the transaction look real
*Beware – the site may look like a well known website, but the links will take you to a fake website.
*Once the funds are transferred into the fraudster’s account, the seller and listing vanish. And it’ll leave you without the item or your money.
*If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Selling scams
* Be careful when you are selling something. A buyer could be a potential fraudster. Here’s how they do it.
*The buyer will give you a cheque of greater value than the value of the item being sold. They ask for the extra money to be transferred back or sent to a third party, for example, a “shipping agent”.
*Once this has been done by the seller the cheque bounces, and the buyer then disappears, leaving the seller out of pocket.

Phishing and malware
*This is where you get a generic email from your bank or another organization.
*The email usually has a link to a website that looks like the bank’s website
*However, the website is actually fake and your details are taken, allowing the fraudster to log in to online banking and use your account.
*Also beware calls claiming to be from IT help centres or recognized software providers asking to remotely log on to your PC. By allowing this a fraudster can access and use your online banking, gain access to your personal information or download viruses and malware to your PC.

Staying safe – other tips to help stop the threat of fraud
Never give out your security details
*Information like your card PIN, One Time Passcode (OTP), password or security numbers are personal to you and shouldn’t be shared with anyone – not even your bank.


Never transfer money out of your account for security reasons


Never reply to emails asking for your personal or security information


Never withdraw cash or purchase goods to hand over for safe-keeping or to assist with investigation