14 DAY TRIAL // Today, March 20, has been appointed by the UK Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as the Courier Fraud Awareness Day. Activities are being carried out to raise awareness regarding these scams which, in two years’ time, have made over 2,200 victims, most of which elderly citizens.
Since January 2011, authorities have arrested 130 fraudsters and have charged 93. Two of them, brothers, have been sentenced to over 10 years in prison after stealing almost 250,000 GPB ($390,000 / 292.000 EUR) from over 200 victims.
So how do these scams work?
The fraudster calls up the victims pretending to be from the police, the bank or the Serious Fraud Office. He tells them that their bank accounts have been compromised and informs them that their payment cards must be collected.
To make everything more legitimate-sounding, the crooks instruct the victim to hang up and call the police or the bank to verify everything. However, the caller doesn’t hang up the phone so, after the victim dials the number of the legitimate organization, he/she is talking to the same fraudster.
The con artist then tells victims to enter their PINs from the phone’s keypad. Finally, victims are instructed to put the card in an envelope and hand it over to an unwitting courier or taxi driver that will stop by the house to pick it up.
With the card and the PIN in hand, the crooks simply go to an ATM machine and empty the victim’s bank account.
To avoid falling victim to such scams, citizens are advised never to hand over their PIN or bank card to anyone. If contacted by someone who asks for such information, they should simply hang up.
After that, file a report with the police from another phone line.
“Courier fraudsters put a huge amount of time and effort into being convincing because for them the pay-off is immense. This is a massive part of what makes them so successful,” MPS lead on organized crime, Commander Steve Rodhouse, explained.
“We want people to question even truly genuine sounding calls and, most importantly, remember police and banks will never ask for your PIN or bank card, so you should never give these away,” he added.
“We are also urging courier and cab firms to be alert to anyone who may be using them to carry out this fraud. If you are asked to collect a package that you believe could be a bank card, do not make the delivery but call police immediately. You could prevent someone from being a victim of this terrible crime, and also stop yourself from being implicated.”