Beware of Social Media Scams! Police want to warn people of an online fraud after learning a local - Monday 22 July 2019

By Hartlepool Alert

Beware of Social Media Scams! Police want to warn people of an online fraud after learning a local woman had been scammed over Facebook. In this case the woman was contacted by someone she knew of, asking to friend her on the social media platform. The victim was then told by the woman that she herself had received a payment for marriage tax and she posted a screen shot of her bank account, showing a payment of 200, 000. She then told the victim that she should friend request a named man, who would explain the process to her. The victim did as suggested and was told she would be entitled to receive 450, 000 but she should not tell anyone about her claim until the payment had reached her account. The victim was then informed that due to the large sum of money involved, it would need to be delivered in a secure package via a specialist delivery firm and the cost would be 4, 600. The victim was even provided with a Barclays Bank account number and sort code which unfortunately meant she believed it was fine to transfer these funds. Unfortunately the victim sent funds to the named bank account and received a tracking number from a company. Their email address even included a so called shipping company but unsurprisingly the victim never received a package of money. Barclays Bank logged this incident with us police on Friday afternoon and Action Fraud is also aware. Cleveland Police officers visited the victim in person that evening and gave her information about scams taking place over social media and the wider internet. We ould repeat our advice that you should be very careful if you come across offers like this and if it seems too good to be true then it usually is. Anyone with concerns should visit Action Frauds Website and, if they believe they have fallen victim to a scam, also speak with their bank.

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