Police urge public to be on guard against scammers

Police in Derry City & Strabane are urging the public to be on their guard against scammers. 

The warning comes after a report made on Monday, 1st August of a scam involving the loss of £300 after the victim bought what he believed to be online gift vouchers.

Sergeant Walsh said: “We know scammers will stop at nothing in an attempt to dupe people, whether it’s on the phone, via email or through the more sophisticated cons where people become victims of romance or investment scams.

“Scam emails appear to be very convincing, however, do not be fooled into giving out personal or banking details via email or over the phone. if you think there’s something suspicious about the correspondence, it’s usually a scam.

“We all need to be vigilant of any contact from an unsolicited source, whether that is from doorstep callers, telephone, mail or online. Education is our best weapon in preventing people from becoming victims.”

Advice

What should you do if you’ve received a scam email?

• Do not click on any links in the scam email.
• Do not reply to the email or contact the senders in any way.
• If you have clicked on a link in the email, do not supply any information on the website that may open.
• Do not open any attachments that arrive with the email.
•If you think you may have compromised the safety of your bank details and/or have lost money due to fraudulent misuse of your cards, you should immediately contact your bank.

If you’ve been a victim of fraud, report it to Action Fraud.

Fake emails often (but not always) display some of the following characteristics:

• The sender’s email address doesn’t tally with the trusted organisation’s website address.
• The email is sent from a completely different address or a free web mail address.
• The email does not use your proper name, but uses a non-specific greeting like “dear customer”.
• A sense of urgency; for example the threat that unless you act immediately your account may be closed.
• A prominent website link. These can be forged or seem very similar to the proper address, but even a single character’s difference means a different website.
• A request for personal information such as user name, password or bank details.
• The email contains spelling and grammatical errors.
• You weren’t expecting to get an email from the company that appears to have sent it.
• The entire text of the email is contained within an image rather than the usual text format.
• The image contains an embedded hyperlink to a bogus site.

If you want to report a scam contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 20 40 or www.actionfraud.police.uk For general advice on how to stay safe online, visit www.GetSafeOnline.org