£55,000 is taken from N.wales victim in Covid online scam

CRUEL scammers took £55,000 from a North Wales victim in a Covid-19 con.

North Wales Police have warned people that Covid-related scams are still being regularly reported to them, and shared the details of a recent incident where con artists were posing as both the NHS and reputable bankers.

PC Dewi Owen, of the region’s Cyber Crime Team, said: “In a recent example, an innocent victim received a text message believed to be from NHS stating that they had been exposed to Covid and further advising that they needed to order an urgent PCR test.

“The victim believing this to be a genuine message from the NHS clicked on the link which took them to a website where they ordered a PCR test and paid a small fee which they thought was to cover postage costs.

“A few days later the victim received a call from a person purporting to be from their Bank advising that there was a virus on their phone and enquired about their accounts. They instructed the victim to log into their online banking account and to change their password.”

The victim soon realised that £55,000 had been taken from their bank account.

PC Owen said: “In this and similar cases the criminals obtain the victim’s details including name, address, phone number and Bank details from the form that the victim fills in on the malicious website when they believe that they are ordering the PCR test from the NHS. They have accessed the malicious website by clicking on the malicious link on the fake NHS e-mail.”

He urged people to be careful and “make sure that family, friends and neighbours know about Covid scams such as this one” as well as the potential consequences that come from clicking on malicious links in fake scam e-mails.

Fraudsters, no doubt adapting to the Covid-19 pandemic, took to hiding behind computers screens when remotely conning their victims.

If you suspect you have been scammed, defrauded or experienced cyber crime, the Action Fraud team can be contacted on 0300 123 2040.