Guernsey’s Bailiwick Law Enforcement and Trading Standards are aware of people receiving scam telephone calls claiming that money has been transferred into their bank account and to ‘press 1, then follow the instructions’.
Residents have also received calls claiming to be from their bank, asking to send funds to China to help catch a member of staff out for whom they believed was stealing money. Banks will not contact individuals in this manner and will not ask people to do such things.
If you receive such a call, hang up. If you want to contact your bank either wait several minutes before using your phone or call the bank from a different phone, as the caller may still be holding on the line and pretend to be your bank.
Residents have also been receiving various scam text messages purporting to be from a bank, one such text claims that a payment attempt has been made from a new device, the recipient is then instructed to follow a link. Another text purporting to be from a bank, informs the recipient that their device has successfully paired with a new device, and then asks ‘if this was NOT you, click on the link’.
Be aware, some banks do contact customers via text message and may direct the customer to follow a link; however if you are in doubt do not click on the link and contact your bank. Be particularly suspicious if you receive a text message from a bank you do not hold an account with. Finally, another scam which appears to be targeting Guernsey residents is an email parcel delivery scam. Scammers are posing as genuine companies such as IPS. The email claims that people’s parcel will be delivered after an import tax charge is covered, the charge being approximately £1.50.
Within the email is a link which takes the recipient to a fake website, where delivery and bank account details are requested. If completed the scammers then have the recipients personal and bank details. In previous versions of this type of scam, scammers have pretended to be DPD or Royal Mail.
If you receive such an email, ignore it and contact the parcel delivery company or Post Office by telephone. If you think you have fallen for a scam, in the first instance contact your bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via actionfraud.police.uk. You can also contact the Guernsey Police on 725111 or via fraud@guernsey.pnn.police.uk and Trading standards via scams@gov.gg or tradingstandards@gov.gg.
