Courier scams: fraudsters stole over £28.7m last year

Victims of courier fraud lost an average of £20,032 last year with 43% of victims aged in their 80s, according to Action Fraud data.

Over a two-week period in May, City of London Police saw more than 100 referrals about courier fraud from 26 Police forces across England and Wales.

More than £290,000 was lost to courier fraud over these two weeks, with one victim losing £56,000. 

Read on to find out what courier fraud is and tips to avoid and report this scam.

What is courier fraud?

Courier fraud is when a scammer impersonates an authority, such as the police or bank, and encourages their victim to hand over money, valuables or bank cards, which will be collected from them by couriers.

It often starts with a cold call where the scammer will create a story to convince you to take action. It may be a fraudulent payment occurring on your card, or even someone being arrested using your details and that your help is needed in the investigation.

Victims are often asked to visit their bank to withdraw money, withdraw foreign currency from a currency exchange or to purchase a high value item to give to a courier. Victims may also be asked to hand over their bank card.

In some cases, the scam caller may ask you to call the number on the back of your card to prove they are genuine. However, the scammer will keep the phone line open at their end, so you’ll be connected back to them while believing you’ve been put through to your bank.

The police has reported that five suspects have been arrested and its enquiries are ongoing.

Avoiding and reporting courier fraud

Firstly, your bank or the police will never ask you to purchase valuable goods or hand over money to them.

Courier fraud usually begins with a phone call, some ways to prevent cold calls include:

If you do get a cold call, use a different phone to call the company back on a trusted number. Wait for at least 15 minutes after hanging up, this is because scammers may be able to keep your phone line open even after you’ve hung up.

To report a scam call received on your iPhone, text the word ‘call’ followed by the phone number to 7726.

On an Android phone, text the word ‘call’ to 7726, and you’ll then receive a message asking you for the scam number.

WhatsApp scam calls can be reported by opening the WhatsApp chat with the dodgy phone number and tapping 'block'. You can report the contact by tapping 'report contact' and 'block'.

source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/courier-scams-fraudsters-stole-over-28.7m-last-year-ajDnq2L4vpqM