NI victims conned out of £80k during past month in broadband call scam
ALMOST £ 80,000 has been conned out of scam victims in Northern Ireland in the last four weeks.
Amounts of up to £25,000 were stolen from five people in the last month in a new type of scam which starts with a phone call claiming to be from a broadband company.
Scammers then persuade their victims to give them access to their computers and sometimes even offer them compensation.
Chief Superintendent Simon Walls said: “We have put out a number of warnings about scams but we have seen a particular increase in the number of scams where some type of broadband issue is raised.
“The phone call is normally teed up by the person on the other end of the phone saying ‘ there is a problem with your broadband’, be it a speed issue or some other type of security issue.
“The person is then asked a number of questions and they are given a series of instructions about what to do.
“Sometimes, the person either deliberately or inadvertently will download software and that software will allow the scammer access to the person’s computer, and once they are into their computer they can get into their
online bank account. Once they are into the online bank account a series of transactions can be made that takes money out of the person’s account and sends it off to a number of different accounts.” Mr Walls said the scam has slightly changed recently, with some victims offered compensation for slow broadband service.
“Someone may be offered £300 compensation and accept, but a figure much greater looks like it goes into their account,” he said.
“So £5,000 looks like it has been transferred to the person’s account, but it hasn’t been transferred at all.
“Once that inflated figure is put in, the person will then seek to refund that money and it is at that point that the payments will come out of their own account into the scammers’ account.”
In the last four weeks, police have received reports of five people scammed out of amounts ranging from £8,000 to £25,000. In total almost £78,000 was tak- en in the last month.
Mr Walls said they believe the scammers are based overseas.
Customers from a number of Northern Ireland banks have been affected.
Danske Bank fraud manager Paul Brown said the apparent refund offer is a new twist on the scam they have seen recently.
“The caller will start out saying they think your email has been compromised, your Amazon account has been compromised, but it is all building up to saying they think your internet banking account has been compromised,” he said.
Have you been the victim of a phone scam? Tell us about it by contacting the news desk at newseditor@ belfasttelegraph.co.uk