Fake police scamming Lowestoft residents

Suffolk Police are telling residents in Lowestoft to be vigilant of fraudsters claiming to be police officers.

On Wednesday (30 September) police were called just before 11.30am. A member of the public said he'd just been called by a man claiming to be from the police stating they'd just detained the man's carer who has all his bank details and asked him to confirm them over the phone. The man refused to comply.

A second incident in Lowestoft was also made yesterday afternoon stating police had arrested a male and has in his possession a large mount of money belonging to the resident. Following enquiries it was established the resident had not lost any money at all.

A third incident reported yesterday (Thurs 1 October) had taken place on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 September where an elderly female had had a call from someone stating he was a police officer and claimed he had her nephew in custody.

The caller asked her to go to her bank and with draw a large sum of cash which she did. The caller claimed this was to help catch gangs who are putting fake notes into circulation. She was told not to say anything to anyone. The victim was then informed that someone would attend her property. A male, dressed in black and red and in a red van arrived and picked up the four figure sum of money. The same process was repeated the following day with further money withdrawn from a bank and subsequently taken by the offender.

Genuine police officers or staff would never approach residents and ask for cash withdrawals to be made or for people to purchase items on their behalf.

Officers have this advice:

• Never give out personal information about your bank account to anybody over the phone.

• If someone calls claiming to be a police officer, ask for their photo identification, officer number and police force. If they phone, hang up and call 101 using a different phone. If you can’t use a different phone, wait at least five minutes before calling back. A genuine police officer will not mind waiting while you check.

• Police and banks will never ask you to give out personal details such as account numbers or PIN numbers.

• If you have given out information which could compromise your bank account security in any way, call your bank to cancel your cards as soon as possible.

• Never hand over money to someone at the door to be sent off elsewhere.