Police Warn of £15m Courier Scams

Police are urging the community to be vigilant following revealing that 1000’s of individuals fell target to so-termed “courier fraud” final year, primary to losses in surplus of £15m.

Some 3625 Brits were being conned in 2021, with scammers applying a wide range of techniques to trick them into handing around money, cards or pricey objects to a courier dispatched to their handle.

The Metropolis of London police power, which operates the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), mentioned there have been four typical types of courier fraud, all of which ordinarily start with an unsolicited telephone phone:

• A scammer pretends to be from the victim’s financial institution, declaring their card doesn’t operate. They talk to for the PIN and mail a courier spherical to accumulate it.
• The fraudster masquerades as a law enforcement officer and asks the sufferer to assist with an undercover procedure by shopping for expensive products like jewelry and gold, which are then handed in excess of.
• The sufferer receives a phone call from somebody proclaiming to be either a law enforcement officer or banking official. They pretend to require enable with an investigation into banking corruption. The target is informed to withdraw a huge volume of hard cash to be handed to a courier so they can ‘check’ for fingerprints or to establish ‘counterfeit’ notes.
• The scammer statements to be from the victim’s internet support service provider (ISP), indicating they are thanks payment for a provider issue. The victim is persuaded to down load a remote access Trojan, offering accessibility to their laptop. The fraudster then tips the victims into contemplating they have been compensated also a great deal compensation. The target withdraws income to pay back the cash again, which is afterwards collected by a courier.

The aged are particularly at risk from this kind of fraud, which the scammers normally urging them when they call not to notify any close friends or loved ones about what they are accomplishing, in accordance to Metropolis of London Police.

A single 83-calendar year-aged woman was evidently conned out of around 30,000 after handing about her debit card and driver’s license.

“Fraudsters are callous folks and courier fraud is no exception. They prey on some of the most susceptible and most reputable users of culture. Victims of courier fraud usually tend to be between the ages of 70 to 89 yrs old, with ladies much more possible to be targeted than men,” described superintendent Edelle Michaels from the lead drive operations area at the Town of London Law enforcement.

“We would urge all people who is included in a caring or supportive purpose to individuals of these ages to begin discussions about the strategies applied and warning indicators to seem out for on courier fraud. Just having that dialogue could be the distinction on no matter if a person gets a sufferer of this belief-eroding criminal offense.”

Some parts of this article are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-journal.com