I received an email today from Councillor Judith Grajewski (Hiltingbury West ward) about a vishing scam.
Vishing (or voice phishing) is the act of using the telephone with an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.
PCSO Jay Tabor, from the Knightwood & Valley Park policing team, informs us that there is a scam and some local elderly people have become victims in the past few days. It is a complex fraud.
“They (the victims) have received a phone call from someone claiming to be a police officer and told that 2 people have been arrested using their card to buy items and that to confirm the details they need a copy of the card. They tell the person to call them back to confirm it is genuine but they leave the line open meaning that the call goes straight back to them and they tell the person they will be sending a taxi to collect the card from them.”
By PCSO Jay Tabor
Advice from the police:
If you receive any phone calls of this nature, put the phone down and call the police to report it on 101 (from a different phone if at all possible). DO NOT give any details to anyone who might ask.
Two weeks ago, Ray Turner had an in-depth report on Eastleigh News about similar crimes: Don’t be a Victim of Vishing.
BBC News reported in December last year: ‘Vishing’ and courier scam complaints increase.
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