Police to text 70,000 victims in UK's biggest anti-fraud operation 24 November 2022 at 6:53AM edited 24 November 2022 at 7:00AM in Savings & investments 16 replies 1.7K views

masonic

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63736573

"Detectives are aware of the risks of using a text message to contact victims of fraud who may have been targeted through their mobile phones."

I'm struggling with this. How many among those 70,000 are so far unaware they've been scammed despite their accounts being emptied? How likely is it they and others will recognise and ignore a scam text directing them to a fake ActionFraud site asking them to pay a deposit in order for AF to look into their case and refund them? It seems to me that the media coverage is just going to lend credibility to a new scam and very few of those receiving genuine texts are going to need to be told they've previously been scammed.

LHW99

Although it appears the baddies will have back-up servers all ready to go

MikeJXE

Crazy in my opinion, if you have been scammed surely that means you are not as clued up as you should be, no matter how the text is worded some will not understand 

masonic

MikeJXE said:

Crazy in my opinion, if you have been scammed surely that means you are not as clued up as you should be, no matter how the text is worded some will not understand 

Presumably those who receive a genuine text and were actually scammed won't be getting any of their money back, and if they didn't report to ActionFraud already, I'd be surprised if a text will prompt them into action. It will be those members of the general public who get a spoof text out of the blue, google it and then find the article, that may be lured into a trap.

grumbler

Yet another thread on Current Accounts board -  Fraud article

Band7

I haven't received any texts from the Met as yet. But I had plenty of clearly fraudulent calls or texts in the last few months, allegedly from HMRC, NHS, O2, Barclays, HSBC and Santander. They may have taken out iSpoof, but my number seems to be on a different spoofer database.

Did anyone else here get one of those texts from the Met?

masonic

Band7 said:

I haven't received any texts from the Met as yet. But I had plenty of clearly fraudulent calls or texts in the last few months, allegedly from HMRC, NHS, O2, Barclays, HSBC and Santander. They may have taken out iSpoof, but my number seems to be on a different spoofer database.

Did anyone else here get one of those texts from the Met?

There's estimated to be north of 63 million mobile phone users in the UK and the Met will be contacting about 70,000 of these (about 1 in every 1000 users). I doubt there are many mobile users who have never received some form of scam contact.

If I receive such a message I will be treating it as fraudulent (as this seems much more likely to be the case), and I certainly won't be clicking any links in any SMS I receive.

adindas

What probably some people forget here is that, in this country there are reasonable number of people play as a victim where in fact they get involved in the activity like this knowingly that it is almost certain it is a fraud due to high incentive. When they get conned they start to play as a victim and start finding a way to get compensated using the taxpayers money.

The case like this get amplified by the politicians who are aiming to get the votes from the people like this.

You see  reasonable number of threads like this in this MSE.

P1Fanatic

adindas said:

What probably some people forget here is that, in this country there are reasonable number of people play as a victim where in fact they get involved in the activity like this knowingly that it is almost certain it is a fraud due to high incentive. When they get conned they start to play as a victim and start finding a way to get compensated using the taxpayers money.

The case like this get amplified by the politicians who are aiming to get the votes from the people like this.

You see  reasonable number of threads like this in this MSE.

So people knowingly pay into a scam with the hope that they may get the money they invested paid back as compensation? What is the point of that as best case they end up no better off than when they started.

Band7

P1Fanatic said:

So people knowingly pay into a scam with the hope that they may get the money they invested paid back as compensation? What is the point of that as best case they end up no better off than when they started.

Well they have a cunning plan, which goes a bit like that:

They pay into an account they are connected with - though this wouldn't be immediately obvious
Then they run to the bank and scream blue murder
Banks reimburses them, mainly because consumer organisations & now the FCA force them to - kerching!

Of course banks aren't entirely daft and have substantially increased their measures to catch these thieves red handed.

eskbanker

ashby6567 said:

Ah no worries masonic, there isn't a need for you to keep banging on and on about the issue. Your ulcers will have ulcers before too long if you carry on about it.
Keep on topic, Savings & Investments it ain't.

Perish the thought that people would debate issues of the day on a discussion forum!

And it's clearly on topic, for those being relieved of savings via such frauds, although it's equally valid on the banking board....