On 12th January 2021, North Yorkshire Police received 6 reports from across the county where victims had received a call from a male claiming to be a police officer. In each report the name given by the fraudster and the force area they claimed to work from differed but the approach to the victim was always the same. The ‘officer’ would claim that they had a male in custody they believed to be the grandson/nephew etc of the person being called and that this person was in possession of their bank and credit cards. The person being called was asked to immediately call their bank or the police on 911 to verify this was genuine. This was when the potential victims realised the call was a scam as they were told not to necessarily wait for a dialling tone and to use the phone they were talking on. Obviously if the intended victim did this, they would not be talking to their bank or the police but to the fraudsters.
Please be aware of this type of call and remember, if you ever do need to contact the police or bank to verify, use a different line from the one being called on. Never allow yourself to be rushed and if in doubt immediately terminate the call.
If you wish to receive bulletins from the Police on this and other types of local crime and receive advice on how to avoid becoming a victim, please register at www.nycm.co.uk
More information on scams and frauds are available on this website at https://middlehamtowncouncil.co.uk/keeping-safe-and-getting-help/. Fortunately, there are teams working against the scammers and fraudsters and you can read about their activity and successes at that link.