County Down man scammed out of £30,000 by caller claiming to work for bank

A man from County Down has been scammed out of £30,000 by a caller claiming that he worked for the victim's bank, say police.

It's understood the scammer called the man, advised him that someone was attempting to transfer a large sum from his account and had added a new telephone number.

The caller added that in order to reset the account to the correct telephone number, the victim would receive a code by text message which he was advised to share with the scammer.

Supt Gerard Pollock said the scam was "very convincing" as the criminal used "security features designed to protect against scams to gain access to the victim's account".

"The criminal was able to build trust with the victim by going through transaction on his account, spending an hour and a half in total on the phone," he added.

"In doing so, the fraudster was able to convince the victim to share codes sent by text message, despite these texts specifically saying they should not be shared with anyone else.

"Unfortunately by the time the victim realised he was not speaking with his bank and had his account frozen, he had already been defrauded of £30,000.

"Thankfully on this occasion, his bank reimbursed the monies lost, but others have not been so lucky."

Supt Pollock added that this particular scam "exploits a key security feature which bank have put in place" - namely two factor authentication.

"My message is simple," said the PSNI official, "no genuine bank employee will every ask you for the one-time-code.

"Sharing this code is the modern day equivalent of telling someone your PIN."

"The number from which you receive a call may look genuine; but you should never disclose your personal or banking details to anyone over the phone or online, no matter how convincing they may seem."

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