WE’RE WATCHING YOU

THE more things change, the more they are the same. Four weeks ago, The Mail on Sunday exposed a major scam involving crooks who had got hold of a list of victims of earlier frauds, including rip-offs involving binary options and gemstones.

Falsely claiming to be calling from a genuine company – Data Financial Services Limited – the crooks were ringing up those victims, promising to recover their losses in return for an up-front fee, typically a few thousand pounds.

The Financial Conduct Authority had placed a warning on its website but appears to have taken no further action to halt the fraud. Last Sunday, I reported the crooks had asked victims to transfer money to an account at Lloyds Bank, and as soon as they were given the details, the bank had closed down the account within hours.

That just left the crooks’ phone line to be disconnected. But throughout the past week, that phone line has still been busy, and so have the fraudsters. They started using a fresh bank account at Barclays. I tipped off the bank, and within hours account 20-45-45 5076-0412 had first been frozen and then shut down completely. Well done Barclays.

Anyone who has been tricked into transferring cash to that account should contact the police. The crooks are still operating, and they are still using the telephone number I warned against last week: 0207 315 4076.

The number belongs to Dolphin Com Limited, a company based in Crewe in Cheshire, which also uses the name Callready. It provides phone numbers with area codes to anyone who wants to pretend they are in a particular part of the country when, in fact, they could be anywhere as Dolphin also arranges to divert calls.

So, as the week ends, the fraud continues. Will their phone line be cut off soon? Will their bank details lead the authorities to identify and arrest the crooks? On current performance, I am not holding my breath.