Fraudsters targeting Scots in vaccine text scam
FRAUDSTERS are using the coronavirus vaccination programme to scam more people out of money online, trading standards bosses have warned.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) said text messages had been sent out including links to fake NHS websites that asked recipients for bank details, supposedly for verification purposes.
Similar messages were first reported at the end of December on the Western Isles, but the CTSI says they are ‘by no means limited to the region’. It comes as the Government announced a target of vaccinating 14million people in the highest priority groups by February 15.
According to the CTSI, the messages – which state that recipients have been identified as ‘eligible to apply for your vaccine’ – are the latest in a series of Covid-related scams in circulation since last March.
Katherine Hart, lead officer at the CTSI, said: ‘The vaccine brings great hope for an end to the pandemic and lockdowns, but some only wish to create even further misery by defrauding others. The NHS will never ask you for banking details, passwords or pin numbers and these should serve as instant red flags.
‘Do not provide any information to the scammers, but please also report suspicious messages to Action Fraud, or if in Scotland, Police Scotland, as this provides intelligence and assists authorities i n combating scams.’
Colin Mathieson, spokesman for Advice Direct Scotland, which runs Scotland’s national consumer advice service consumer-advice. scot, said: ‘We urge all Scots to remain scam-aware, think very carefully before sharing your personal information, and if you think a message or an email involving NHS initiatives doesn’t look or seem right, then it probably isn’t.’
Aberdeen City Council’s trading standards manager Graeme Paton said: ‘We are especially concerned that vulnerable people might be taken in by these scams.
‘The text message and fake NHS website look very convincing and, with people keen to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible, they might easily think they’ve been chosen.’