Chief inspector’s warning over calls

One of Perthshire’s most senior police officers has urged Perth and Kinross residents not to be caught out by criminals after he found himself targeted by scammers.

The gang failed to catch out the local area commander, Chief Inspector Ian Scott, who hopes a warning will ensure the public are equally vigilant.

Several homes have been targeted during June, with callers making a number of fraudulent claims in the hope of entrapping victims.

In the chief inspector’s case, bogus callers claimed he had an issue with his computer and offered to help him resolve it.

He said the latest attempt saw criminals claiming to represent the Bank of Scotland in an effort to persuade a Kinnaird man to pass over his bank details. They reported an attempted fraud on his credit card, but put them off by claiming he didn’t have one.

The resident checked his call record the following morning and obtained a 0345 number that went directly to an answering machine claiming to be the Bank of Scotland.

He then called a genuine Bank of Scotland number and confirmed it had been bogus.

Mr Scott said: “These incidents highlight the lengths these scammers will go to, even being able to manipulate caller ID records to make it appear that they have called from a genuine 0345 number.

“If you get a gut feeling something isn’t right, it probably isn’t.”