Householders are being advised by Warwickshire Police not to accept unexpected telephone calls where callers say they are from the bank. The advice has been issued following a scam telephone call in the last few days to a householder in Kenilworth.
The caller said they were calling from the person’s bank and there had been a security breach. They would need the householder to visit the bank and draw out a sizeable sum of money from their account so that the bank could place it in a safer place. They also said that the householder’s jewellery at home could be under threat and they would arrange for a security courier to call and pick up the jewellery if the householder would kindly put it all in an envelope.
The householder placed the jewellery in an envelope and shortly afterwards a caller to her address collected it, effectively stealing the jewellery. The householder then went to her bank to try and withdraw the money she had been asked to. At this stage vigilant bank staff realised what was going on and alerted police.
This latest event got so far because the offender on the telephone sounded very plausible and pleasant, and unfortunately this technique is often very much part of the scam. Householders are advised that Banks and HMRC do not make unexpected telephone calls to householders even in an ‘so called’ emergency situations.
Any call that a householder receives that says it’s from their bank and they were not expecting it, or the caller starts asking for bank details and requesting that money be withdrawn or collected is a scam.
Replace the phone receiver and make sure when picking the receiver back up that you can hear the dialling tone, if not it means the scam caller is still on the line listening so replace the receiver and keep doing so until the dialling tone can be heard.
Kenilworth Watch 