Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Grieving husband of murdered Julia falls victim to con
Widower has bank account emptied in scam
The grieving husband of murdered PCSO Julia James has had his bank account emptied by scammers.
Paul James was targeted by ruthless fraudsters who stole money left to him by the muchloved mum, who was brutally killed in April last year.
On Friday, 22-year-old Callum Wheeler was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 37 years behind bars for bludgeoning Julia to death in Snowdown, near Canterbury (see previous pages).
Now it has emerged her heartbroken husband has been conned by ruthless conmen who used a fake parcel delivery message to enable them to get access to his account.
Mr James has issued a warning to others to be vigilant of the “extremely clever” con-artists.
Posting on his Facebook page, he wrote: “I have been a victim of a scammer that sent a text regarding my parcel.
“They contacted me and accessed my phone, they changed their number to match the banks details.
“They have then emptied my bank account they were extremely clever and convincing and had all my information and had also set up a false payment on my account so I was aware to contact the bank about it.
“All I had was money from my beloved Julia James, she was taken from me and now this!
“Please be vigilant on your phones and what you respond to.”
Parcel scams work by sending a text message to a victim that looks like a genuine text from a legitimate delivery company, such as Royal Mail or DPD.
Called ‘smishing’, the technique is becoming increasingly prevalent in the UK.
Text messages often contain a link to a fraudulent website that replicates a legitimate site, asking the victim to enter personal and financial information.
Exploiting the personal and financial information provided in the text message, the person offers to help safeguard funds by trying to convince someone to transfer money into a ‘safe account?, which is in fact run by the same criminal who sent the original text message.
‘They were extremely clever and convincing and had all my information...’