From 26th July – 23rd August 2023 we have had eight courier frauds in our force area, two in Southern, two in Central and four in Northern. Six of the eight offences led to the courier attending the victims home address and between £6K – £22K has been handed over in each of those scams. In two cases the frauds were thwarted before the courier arrived. As you would expect all victims are elderly and one has learning difficulties.
These crimes are linked by the MO in which the offenders impersonated Police Officers, providing victims with their name, rank, collar number and police stations for credibility. As usual they introduce other police officers to the “investigation” and provide alternative contact numbers to victims. Most commonly offenders claim to have a family member in custody and request bail payments to be paid in cash, if this fails they quickly resort to a tale of internal fraud at the victims bank and instruct the victim to make a counter withdrawal. The offenders provide the victim with a cover story such as “it’s for my daughter’s wedding” to avoid bank staff invoking the banking protocol. Once the victim has withdrawn the cash a courier is promptly dispatched to the victims home with the instruction to hand the money over in a carrier bag, sometimes victims are provided with a code name for the handover.
Telecoms enquires conducted to date show the “voice” behind the crime to be in Tower Hamlet, London. Pursue enquires continue.
I’ve done a couple of media interviews with Radio Newcastle and Metro and we have got some PREPARE work ongoing with the banks. There has been a real failure with the Banking Protocol in all of these cases I’m afraid which is being addressed with personal visits to the banks concerned and UK Finance who coordinate messaging between the banking sector and police.
DON’T
- Don’t engage with strangers over the phone.
- Police/Law Enforcement such as HMRC/Banks will not pester people on their home numbers so end the call.
- Be vigilant, if you do not know the caller ask yourself whether this is a scam and end the call.
- Hang up and leave the receiver down for a minute to ensure the line is cleared.
- Do not ring any numbers provided by the caller, it will be a scam.
- Do not withdraw money over the counter at your bank.
- Do not hand money over to a courier.
- Do not make any transfer payments.
- Don’t ever be rushed into immediate decisions.
DO
- Speak to family members.
- Do speak to your bank but only on a trusted number, such as a number on your bank statement.
- Do report any fraud you have suffered to Action Fraud online.
- Do ring the police immediately if the fraud is ongoing and you expect a courier to your door.
Could I ask you all to consider any Community Engagement opportunities which would help raise awareness of this ongoing problem and help spread the message. In particular if the local authority distribute weekly/monthly newsletters could you highlight the MO and our Protect advice with any contacts you have. I’ve just popped some simple DON’Ts and DO’s above which will be obvious to us but will assist those targeted.
I would be extremely grateful if a SPOC for each Area Command could feed back any Protect messaging you can get out to the Communities.
Many thanks and kind regards
Michelle George 9819
Community Engagement Officer
Southern
| M: 07856280686 | W: www.northumbria.police.uk