Vishing scams cost consumers £24m
Consumers lost £24m last year to phone fraudsters who pretended to be bank staff or police officers and persuaded them to hand over their savings.
Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) said losses through “vishing” were running at three times last year’s level and the problem had “got out of hand”. It has started an awareness campaign to tell consumers that neither their bank or the police would ever ask them to move their money to a new savings account.
Over the past year the Guardian has warned that fraudsters are targeting older bank customers with the highly sophisticated scam. Victims get a cold call at home from someone claiming to be a police officer, a member of bank staff, or a credit card firm. Typically, the criminal tells the customer they have been a victim of card fraud, and asks for personal and financial information in order to gain access to their account.