Police Scotland is again reminding residents in Dumfries and Galloway to be mindful of scams at this time of year. There are numerous scams which have been reported to police, with the perpetrator using various stories and scenarios to obtain money from their potential victims. This can be done over the telephone, by letter, E mail, buying and selling sites or the wider internet.
In general, no matter what style of communication the perpetrator uses to contact their victim, or what scenario or story they use, their aim is to obtain some sort of financial gain from you. Normally, this is achieved by offering the victim a product for sale, inheritance, a lottery win or other financial benefit. However, prior to receiving this product the victim has to pay a deposit to the perpetrator for an administration fee, or provide their banking details either to provide payment or to allow the money to be paid into their account. Once the perpetrator has received payment they will quite often contact the victim again and advise that a further payment is required. Alternatively, if they have successfully obtained your banking details they can withdraw money from your account as and when they want.
Recently it has become apparent that rather than requesting payment or bank details the perpetrator requests that the victim purchases an i-tunes voucher and then contacts the perpetrator with the voucher code. The perpetrator then applies the voucher to another account, basically taking the cash value, and the victim has no come back.
Constable Clark Logie, Crime reduction Officer at Stranraer said “in the latest example the initial contact was through the perpetrator getting in touch by phone and offering a loan, after the victim had been exploring internet based money lending sites. There are lots of different means used however. No matter what story or scenario is used by the perpetrator they are looking to obtain money from you, whether it’s getting you to transfer money to them, or to transfer vouchers or credit, or provide your bank details. In general terms do not give out any financial details over the telephone or on the internet, this includes i-tunes voucher numbers or banking details, unless you are 100% certain who you are talking to, or you are 100% the web site you are on is the correct web site.”
