Police begin campaign in battle against sophisticated fraudsters

A SPATE of “sophisticated” telephone scams in Yorkshire has prompted a new public information campaign, with police telling people how to keep themselves safe from fraudsters. As reported in

this week, the cynical conartists are cold-calling their often-vulnerable victims and posing as the detectives working to bring them to justice, persuading people that they can help in a crime-fighting operation if they hand over cash or valuables to couriers.

While the sophisticated racket has been seen across the country for some time, it has now started targeting people in North and West Yorkshire.

Detective Inspector Jonathan Rowland, of North Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said there had been seven cases across North Yorkshire in the past two weeks and he suspected the fraudsters would continue to target the area in the weeks to come.

He said colleagues at West Yorkshire Police had also seen two similar cases in recent weeks.

Now, in the wake of the reports, North Yorkshire Police is highlighting the sophisticated ways telephone scammers try to con their victims, in the next phase of its six-month awareness campaign about fraud.

Det Insp Rowland said in a statement: “Since mid-April alone we have had seven reports in North Yorkshire where offenders have called their victim over the phone, imitated a trusted organisations such as a bank or a police officer to gain their victims’ trust and defrauded them of their savings.

“They are becoming more sophisticated in the way they deceive and manipulate their victims into gaining their trust and can easily disguise their number to look like one you recognise.

“Please remember that the police or your bank will never call you and ask you to transfer or withdraw money. They will also never ask you to become part of a police investigation.

“If you receive a call of this nature, or have any suspicions at all, do not engage in conversation, please hang up the phone and report it.”

Detectives are alerting people of five ways to identify a fraudulent phone call. They are:

If a caller doesn’t give you time to think, tries to stop you speaking to a family member or friend, is insistent or makes you feel uncomfortable.

The caller asks you to transfer money to a new account for fraud reasons or to aid an investigation.

The caller asks for your fourdigit card PIN or your online banking password, or asks you to tap it into the telephone keypad.

The caller asks you to withdraw money to hand over to them for safe-keeping.

The caller says you are a victim of fraud and offers to send a courier to your home to collect your cash, PIN, payment card or cheque book.