Banking scammer arrested via 77 year old female
Usually, we need to share info about how older people are being scammed, but this time, we have a great story via the Dutch police. The Dutch police was able to arrest a criminal, after he tried to scam a 77 year old female.
The police have arrested a 24-year-old man from Almere on suspicion of defrauding several people. In total, tens of thousands of euros were stolen. Last Friday, however, the man tried his trick on the wrong person. A 77-year-old woman from Papendrecht first got on the phone with a fake bank employee and then the man at the door with a fake story about her bank account, but she did not trust the whole thing. Her action allowed the man to arrest in the act.
Hu’rah!
On Friday evening around 7.30 pm, a 77-year-old woman from Papendrecht was called. She got on the phone with a woman posing as a bank employee. She told the woman that there was something wrong with her bank account and that she could solve it by transferring money to another account. When the woman did not immediately respond, the fake bank employee indicated that a male colleague of hers was nearby, who would come by to help.
The Papendrechtse did not feel good about the telephone conversation and informed her neighbors across the street. These neighbors alerted the police who immediately went there. The 24-year-old man posing as the bank employee could therefore be arrested red-handed by agents. This afternoon the Papendrechtse and her neighbors were put in the spotlight and the Dutch police thanked them for their attention, determination and decisiveness!
People who have become victims of bank help desk fraud are regularly reported, whether or not combined with a chat trick. In this form of scam, the scammer calls anonymously or with a ‘spoofed’ number. Spoofing is a technical trick whereby the name of your bank appears on the screen of your mobile. In reality, this is a cyber criminal posing as a bank employee in this way. Then the scammer, the fake bank employee, tells that the bank account has been hacked and that suspicious transactions can be seen on your account. The scammer will insist on transferring money to a “vault account” or “secure account”.
Another trick is that the scammer tells you that a new bank card is being sent. The scammer asks for the pin code of the ‘old’ bank card and says that a bank employee will immediately come to collect this card. All someone has to do is put the bank card (whether cut or not) in an envelope and hand it over to the ‘bank employee’. An ordinary chat trick, because within a few minutes the account is looted.
Don’t be fooled
Your bank never asks for your bank details, debit card, pin code or to log in to Internet Banking via a link by telephone or e-mail. Also, your bank will never pressure you to act as quickly as possible. Not sure if you have a scammer on the phone? Then immediately disconnect. Then find the correct phone number for the bank yourself to see if what you were told and what you were asked to do is correct.
