Scams in all forms are becoming ever more sophisticated and devious but my very recent experience was so blatant and challenging that I feel compelled to relay it to our local residents in order to be even more on their guard, particularly as this was very much on our home ground.

A telephone call was made to us by an individual claiming to be a local police officer from Croydon Police Station saying that my husband’s and my credit/debit cards had been targeted/cloned. My husband, who took the call initially, suspected a possible scam but nevertheless checked to see if his cards were still in his possession, as the call was so convincing.

With the caller still on the line I took over and asked exactly who he was. With no hesitation he said he was DC Gilbert from Croydon Police and when I asked for his number he gave it as 7296 PP. He came over as a young man with no accent, confident and authoritative, even to the extent that he immediately corrected me when I thought he said he was a PC!

His manner was aggressive in that I was disbelieving in him as a police officer. He then said to press a number, I think no. 9, on my telephone and then to call 999. (This is an old trick whereby the call is not cut off and the scammer’s associates come into play to confirm that the nature of the call is genuine). At this juncture I confronted the caller by saying I was sure he was a scammer and replaced the ‘phone. I must stress that this was the most blatant and convincing scammer that I have come across.

I did follow up by calling the police 101 number and relayed all this to an officer there in the chance that there was an actual officer with that name and number in existence and that he may have been cloned. This was fully checked out but there was no such police officer within the Met.Police, confirming that it was indeed a scam. I must add that the 101 officer was most grateful for the information as well as being very courteous and reassuring.

These villains don’t care who they target or how it leaves their victims, either by losing often an extortionate amount of money or by being subsequently badly affected emotionally.

Please take care and, I’m afraid, be very much on your guard.

– Joan Pring
(Police Liaison)

REMEMBER:

• Always verify the identity of anyone claiming to be a police officer.
• Never share personal or financial information over the phone.
• Report any suspicious activity immediately.

Report fraud and cyber crime to Action Fraud
Online – actionfraud.police.uk
By phone – 0300 123 2040