You may have heard on the news recently about a retired police office who was scammed of £3,000 by scammers pretending to be the Royal Mail. There is an unfortunate trend spreading at the moment where scam artists are pretending to be the Royal Mail in order to gain your private details.
They send you a text telling you they have a parcel waiting for delivery that has a £1.99 charge you must pay if you want to receive it. In order to do this, they provide a link that you click on and takes you to their site. They have very cleverly made it look like the legitimate Royal Mail site to lure you into a false sense of security. On this site, users are then asked to provide personal and payment details which the fraudsters are using for future scams.
In the case of the police officer, the scammers used his details to gain his phone number and bank details. They then rang him pretending to be the bank and were able to tell him all his personal details which made him feel secure enough to do as they asked. He was then asked to transfer money into a new account they had set up. He trusted this as the previous information they had gained from pretending to be the Royal Mail meant they could tell him sort codes and pending payments which made them look legit.
Unfortunately, scam artists are getting more confident and savvier about the ways they operate, leaving more people vulnerable to being a victim of their crimes. Royal Mail insist they will never send text messages to customers whilst banks will not ask you to transfer all your money to a new account they have set up.
If you have any doubts do not answer or reply to any calls or, messages. You can contact them directly if you are unsure but do not use the numbers the provide on any emails, letters or texts, search the companies yourself and use these numbers.