Police are advising increased caution following reports of recent telephone frauds.
Chief Superintendent Simon Walls said: “On two occasions, in the past few days, scammers have been successful in defrauding members of the public of over £35,000 in total. On both occasions, calls were received from a number which matched their bank’s helpline number.
“When the victims have answered they have been informed of problems with their accounts and asked to give their banking details to the caller.
“Unfortunately, once the banking details have been given the scammers were able to access the funds. We believe that these are not isolated incidents and that there have been other scams of this type.
“What the scammers are trying to do is panic people into sharing sensitive personal banking information.
“If you get a call like this don’t respond. Don’t share personal details. End the call.
“Find the number of your financial institution and call them back. If possible make this call from a different phone. Tell them what has happened. A bank, building society or credit union will never call you and ask you to move money to a different account for security reasons. Only a scammer will.
“Guarding your personal and banking details is essential. Never disclose them to any unauthorised person.”
Further advice and information can also be obtained by visiting the ScamwiseNI Facebook page @scamwiseni or www.nidirect.gov.uk/scamwiseni.
And remember if you can spot a scam, you can stop a scam.
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