ISLANDERS are falling victim to a “spoofing” scam which has led to £138,000 in losses over the past six days.
It has led to the States of Jersey police issuing a reminder to all Islanders to be aware of current scams which are being reported and to be cautious around any requests for personal details or information.
In 2023, a total of £624,000 was lost to these scams where fraudsters pretend to be a legitimate company and change their number to that company’s in order to seem convincing (“spoofing”).
The States police said they had received 14 individual reports over the last week of fraudsters attesting to be High Street banks such as HSBC.
The scam involved victims receiving a message, in most cases from the name of a high-street bank, which stated that a payment had been attempted on their account, and inviting them to reply ‘N’ if it was not them.
In recent cases, police said that the texts had referred to a payment being drawn from “CryptoCom”.
Once a reply was received, the individual then received a call from the “bank”.
The message and call appeared to be from a trusted source because the scammers have pretended to be the legitimate company.
During the calls, the scammers asked for personal information such as an address, date of birth or answers to security questions.
Scammers then claim that the account is compromised or “frozen” and that the money should be moved to another account, which the scammers will then clear of all funds.
As these fraudsters are so convincing, the States police added, victims are even passing over their one-time secure key.
Advice for avoiding scam texts or calls
The following guidance has been provided by the States of Jersey Police.
-
If you get a call or text claiming something is wrong with your account do not respond. Instead go to the service provider yourself and check to see if thisis legitimate or not.
-
Don’t trust caller ID or the number that displays on your phone.
-
Don’t give out any personal information including security codes.
-
End the call, wait five minutes, and contact the service provider rather than the numbers provided.
-
For more advice and information, speak to your local bank branch
What is ‘spoofing’?
This is a common term for people pretending to be from legitimate companies by changing their number to show that legitimate company’s number rather than their personal number.
