The job of the National Crime Agency (NCA) is described as leading the fight against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cyber crime and economic crime that goes across regional and international borders.
However, criminals are posing as National Crime Agency officers over the phone in an attempt to con people and steal from them.
The scammers target the elderly and some victims have lost their life savings.
The NCA has so far recorded hundreds of reports of scammers claiming to be NCA officers and they often give a bogus NCA identity number.
The criminals warn victims about a banking scam and persuade them to allow remote access to their computers, or to hand over personal information and bank details.
Sometimes they ask their targets to move the money to a “safe” bank account.
One case involved a 70-year-old man from London who transferred his life savings of £350,000 out of his account after scammers pretended to be NCA officers and staff from an IT security company. The victim allowed the men remote access to his computer after they said he had been hacked and needed to move his money to safe account.
Members of the public should be aware that an NCA officer will NEVER:
- Ask for remote access to your computer via phone, email or online
- Ask you to verify personal details such as passwords, account numbers or card details via phone, email or online
- Ask you to transfer or hand over money via phone, email or online
- Threaten you into providing this information
If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.
