A farmer has been conned out of £10,000 in a telephone scam.
Police have issued fresh warnings for people to be vigilant against anyone phoning unexpectedly and claiming to be from their bank.
In this incident, a farmer from rural Aberdeenshire was tricked into handing out his bank details after the crooks told him his account had been “compromised”.
The fraudster said he needed to verify the farmer’s details – but in reality, they were used to take £10,000 from his account.
PC Mike Urquhart, a north east crime reduction officer, is reminding people of ongoing issues with criminals calling unexpectedly and pretending to be from your bank.
He said: “We continue to see examples of criminals pretending to be from your bank or HMRC.
“They make contact via email, phone, text message or social media, to warn you of suspicious activity on your bank account.”
He said people should be suspicious of a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from a position of authority.
Farmers must be vigilant
Last month, the Moray chief police chief warned farmers to be vigilant against cyber crime.
Chief Inspector Simon Reidsaid one of his top policing priorities was criminal gangs who target rural properties.
Mr Reid, the area commander for Moray, warned farmers to be on the alert for “evolving” criminal gangs who may target rural properties’ IT systems.
He said: “Farms are small businesses like any other and they’re equally susceptible to being targeted by those who might seek to take advantage of their IT system, so they’re vulnerable to cyber attack.
“These cybercrimes are massively impactive upon some of these small communities within the rural environment.”
How to protect yourself
- Be suspicious of a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from a position of authority.
- Take down the person’s details – name, authority, branch, department – and verify using independent source contact details.
- A genuine official from the police, a bank, HMRC or any trusted source will never call you to ask you to verify your personal banking details, Pin or password.
- Never transfer money into another account unless you are 100% certain of the account owner.
- Your bank will never set up a safe account for you.
- If you fall for a scam contact your bank as soon as possible, as they may, be able to stop the transfer.
For more information on scams and frauds from the police, click here.
- Have you been tricked by a recent phone scammer? Help us protect others in your community by sharing your story – email livenews@ajl.co.uk