There has been an increase in Courier Fraud in your local area!

What is Courier Fraud?

Courier Fraud occurs when a criminal contacts a victim by telephone, purporting to be a police officer or bank official. To substantiate this claim, the caller might be able to confirm some basic details about the victim such as their full name and address. They claim there is an issue with your bank account, they have someone in custody or request your assistance with an ongoing bank or Police investigation. The ultimate aim of this call is to convince you into parting with your money either in person, online, via the post office or a money service bureau or in a bank. They may even ask you to buy high value goods, foreign currency or gift cards such as Amazon, iTunes etc.

The caller may also offer a telephone number for the victim to telephone or ask the victim to call the number on the back of their bank card to check that they are genuine. In these circumstances, either the number offered will not be genuine or, where a genuine number is suggested, the criminal will stay on the line and pass the victim to a different individual.

The caller may also ask you to lie to the bank staff as they may ‘be in on it’ and tell you to say it is for house renovations, a new car or your family members.

Your bank, the police or His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will never:

· call and ask you for your full PIN or full banking password.

· ask you to lie.

· ask you to withdraw money to hand over to them.

· ask you to purchase high value jewellery, watches or foreign currency.

· ask you to purchase a gift cards or high value goods.

· ask you to transfer money out of your account.

How to protect yourself

· Be extremely wary of unsolicited phone calls from your bank or the police, particularly if they are requesting personal information.

· End the call, call back on a different phone line or on a mobile. If this is not possible, wait 5 minutes before calling back. STOP, HANG UP, CALL 159. 159 is a short-code phone service that connects people safely to their bank’s fraud prevention service or for the police dial ‘101’.

· Speak to friends or family before carrying out any actions.

· Don’t trust claims made by cold callers.

· Never hand over your money, bank cards or make purchases following an unexpected call.

· Never share your PIN, One-time passwords (OTPs) or passwords with anyone.

Please remember this key message: The A B C of Scam Awareness

Never ASSUME – never assume a caller is genuine.

Never BELIEVE – never believe a caller is genuine – scammers may ‘spoof’ official telephone numbers, so the call display may show your banks telephone number, but it does not mean it is a genuine call.

Always CONFIRM – always confirm if the call is genuine – ask for identification (name, branch, employee number etc). Tell the caller you will hang up and call back to confirm. Call the bank on the number shown on their website using a different phone or wait at least 10 minutes. Ask if it was a genuine call.

If you have paid money or shared your bank details, contact your bank’s fraud team straight away.

Fraud Prevention Co-ordinator (WEST)

The Child Centred Policing Team are looking to set up an intervention project with switch youth services in Maidstone town centre where young people can come along and repair old bikes. The intentions of the project are to divert offending, learn new skills, enforce some core values as well as break down barriers with police.

Cycles UK have agreed to support the project and ensure that once fixed, the bicycles are road safe. However we are looking for members of the public to kindly donate bicycles for young people aged between 11-16. If you are in a position to help us then please drop us a message and we will be in touch.