HOW THE MOBILE SCAM WORKS

1 FRAUDSTERS gather as much information as possible on victims. They intercept post, hack emails or buy data on the black market.

They stalk victims online, checking their Facebook page for details such as their first school, pet’s name and favourite football team. They may look on genealogy websites to find the victim’s mother’s maiden name.

In many cases they phone the victim posing as a reputable company, such as BT or the bank itself, and extract further information. 2 WITH this data, the criminals pose as the customer and call their mobile phone company saying their handset has been lost or stolen.

They use the details they have gleaned to get through the firm’s security checks and ask for all calls to be diverted to a new phone.

Some hack into your mobile phone account online, known as ‘sim-swapping’. The sim card is the tiny electronic chip you insert into your handset. It links your handset to your phone number and network provider as well as all the information that identifies you as a customer. You can buy these chips for as little as £1 from newsagents and supermarkets. 3 THE victim will no longer be able to make or receive calls and texts. They may not notice or think it’s just a signal problem. 4 GANG members hack into the customer’s online banking and request huge transfers out of the account. In Santander’s case, the bank sends a text message to the customer’s mobile phone containing a unique passcode. 5 THIS text is sent to the criminals’ handset and they enter it into the customer’s online banking to confirm payments are genuine.

If the bank’s system flags the large payments as suspicious, it may call the customer’s mobile, but it will be the fraudster who answers.

They will pretend to be the victim and insist that payments are pushed through. The victim may know nothing about the scam until they go online and see the account is empty.