A sophisticated type of fraud is on the rise across the UK – where people are telephoned by fraudsters and tricked into revealing their PIN and handing over their bank card to a courier. Pay Your Way is working with The UK Cards Association and Financial Fraud Action UK to raise awareness of how to avoid the ‘Courier Scam’.
More than £1.5m has now been lost to the scam, with the same amount – £750,000 – stolen in the first four months of 2012 that was stolen during the whole of 2011. This equates to a three-fold increase in this crime. The scam involves a person being called by someone claiming to be from their bank and told that their debit or credit card needs collecting.
The caller suggests the person hangs up and calls the bank back to ensure the issue is genuine, but stays on the line; tricking the person into thinking they’re calling their bank. The fraudster will then ask the person to key in their PIN number, before sending a courier to collect the card. The victim is told the card is going to the bank to be changed but is actually delivered to the fraudster to use.
According to figures released by Pay Your Way, over three quarters of the UK (76 per cent) feel confident they would be able to spot a fraudulent telephone banking call. However, after hearing how the Courier Scam works, over half (56%) of the 4,000 people surveyed were surprised by how sophisticated it is, one third (33pc) worried they were more vulnerable than they thought and four fifths (80pc) felt that anyone could be a potential victim to the fraud.
With 91pc feeling that older adults would be particularly at risk, Pay Your Way is encouraging people to make sure that older relatives and friends are also aware of the scam in order to stamp out this kind of fraud and help older generations to keep their finances secure.
