[Sussex] FW: Fraud Warning - Message from Northamptonshire Police

[Steve Dobson]

Sluggers

This was picked up by a friend here at work.  Don't know anything
more about it, but forewarned is forearmed.

> Below are details of a scam currently going the rounds. The police have
> requested that as many people are alerted as possible.
> Unfortunately it is a genuine scam.
>
> Police Report !
> The reason this is working so well is it plays on your good will!
> Picture the scene:-
>
> You are sitting at home and there is a knock at the door. On answering it
> you are confronted by a respectable looking woman in a suit, who is
> lightly distressed. She explains that her car has broken down further
> down the road and she needs to contact her husband to come to her aid.
> Is it at all  possible to use your phone to call him?
>
> You allow her to use the phone, but being the suspicious type you stand
> with her as she makes the call. She dials the number, and asks to be put
> through to Mr Smith / Brown / Stevens (Whatever). She holds the line for
about
> thirty seconds. She continues, "In that case can you ask him to leave the
> meeting for a minute I need to speak to him quite urgently." She
apologises
> again and explains they are getting him out of a meeting.
>
> A couple of minutes goes by and she starts to speak to her husband. She
> explains the situation to him, tells him what has happened to the car, is
> annoyed because she now can't get to her meeting, and asks what she should
> do now. She listens for a few seconds and then says, "Well as soon as the
> meeting finishes can you come to Cardiff Road / Leicester Road / Surrey
> Street (Whatever), where the car has broken down. Another few seconds go
> by, "OK, I'll see you in about twenty minutes then."
>
> She put the phone down, and thanks you ever so much for your kind
> assistance, even offering you a pound for your trouble, but of course you
> decline, it's no trouble.  She leaves and everything is fine.
>
> Or is it? The day or week before knocking on your door she set up her own
> premium rate line with a telephone company at the cost of about £150, and
> she has dictated that calls to that number should be charged at £50 per
> minute. She has dialled that number. The conversation she has had with her
> "husband" is entirely fictitious, there is a pre-recorded voice message on
> the other end to give you the impression she is talking to someone. She
> has been on the phone for about five minutes, that call just cost you
£250,
> the majority of which goes into her pocket, and the first you know about
it
> is when you get your bill a month later.
>
> To rub a bit of salt into the wound, she hasn't even committed a criminal
> offence. You've given her permission to use your phone. On 5 occasions in
> Luton where this has been reported in the last couple of weeks.
> 
> Would anyone reading this please pass it on to friends and colleagues etc.
> otherwise it could cost someone a lot of money.
>
> PC Paul Toseland
> Corby Business Anti-Crime Network Administrator

Steve