fraudster dupes victimsinto revealing details
Customers ripped off by bogus bank calls
Published:
Tens of thousands of pounds have been stolen from bank accounts held by people in the Highlands – after they were duped into giving out personal details
The Halifax Bank of Scotland customers were tricked by a plausible telephone caller who claimed to be setting up an anti-fraud system.
Instead the information that the caller elicited was used to plunder accounts.
Police believe the scam may have been an “inside job”.
Most victims live in and around the Inverness area.
And another line of inquiry Northern Constabulary are pursuing is that they were the victims of identity theft.
Last night, detectives would not reveal how many people were duped into giving their account details to the telephone caller claiming to be from HBOS, but said the amount taken runs to “tens of thousands of pounds”.
Police are warning HBOS customers, particularly the elderly, not to give out any details to individuals claiming to be from the bank, especially bank account numbers, pins and passwords.
They also warned people to use “extreme caution” in any phone calls they receive about their bank accounts. Yesterday one victim told the Press and Journal she had “quite a bit” stolen, enough to put her in the red.
The 52-year-old Inverness woman said she received a call from someone claiming to be from HBOS, and because the caller already knew so much about her, no alarm bells began ringing.
She said the caller claimed to be setting up a security password “in case of frauds” and asked her to provide her existing password.
The caller already knew her name and that she had an ISA account with the bank.
“I asked if any money was to go out of my account and the caller said no, that this was just a security call to set up a password,” she said. “There was nothing in the phone call that was out of the ordinary. There was nothing in the call that made me think this was a scam. They seemed to know a lot about me.”
When the woman checked her bank balance two days later, she was overdrawn.
She went to the bank and staff confirmed that money had been withdrawn.
HBOS then advised her to contact the police.
She added: “It’s not a very nice thing to happen. It’s such an invasion of privacy.”
A spokesman for HBOS said last night it was not appropriate to comment now the matter is in the hands of the police.
Northern Constabulary’s Inverness area commander, Chief Inspector Julian Innes, said: “It is not normal banking practice to ask for such details over the phone and no details of accounts, passwords or pin codes should be discussed on the telephone.
“If anyone is in any doubt please take the name and phone number of the caller and call the police.”
Sheila MacKay, of the Highland Senior Citizens Network, said: “One of the problems is that elderly people tend to accept what is said to them by a voice on the other end of the telephone.
“The people doing this sound so convincing and sound like an official body.
“Our advice is just don’t give out any personal details over the phone or even on your doorstep.”
A spokesman for Help the Aged said frauds involving cold-callers are more common than people think.
A lot of elderly people conned out of their cash by cold-callers were too “embarrassed” to report it, he said.
“It’s not as though these are a few opportunists. Many are professional criminals who are very organised and share information.
“A lot of older people are embarrassed that this has happened to them they don’t report these things.
“What we say is don’t give out any information.”
He said cold-callers use a variety of methods including knocking on doors, e-mailing and telephoning.
Anyone who feels they may have been a victim of a similar fraud has been urged to contact police on 08456 033388, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
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