Scammers are sending card readers in an attempt to gain the trust of vulnerable victims, an exclusive investigation by BBC One Daytime’s Rip-Off Britain has discovered.
In a trend not seen before, fraudsters have been sending card readers by post to prospective victims – some of whom they have already gained the bank details of beforehand.
The card readers, usually used by customers to access their online banking by putting their card in the top and entering their pin, aren’t branded to a particular bank and have left social media users feeling “spooked.”
“Mark Wardlow from cyber-security firm SureCloud examined the fake card reader sent to 72-year-old Rip-Off Britain viewer Maureen. As this is an emerging scam, Mark believes that: “In this case the pure act of sending the card reader was to subsequently use that to follow up with a telephone call, which would then convince Maureen to give over information which would allow them ultimately to take money out of a bank account.”
Julia Somerville, one of the presenters of Rip-Off Britain, said: “Every so often a fraudster will try something so audacious it still takes our breath away.”
Rip-Off Britain will continue to look into this rising scam and are calling on viewers to come forward with their experiences to aid their investigation for future programmes.
Tune into Rip-Off Britain on Monday, 12 th October at 9:15am to find out more, as we follow the story of Maureen and her daughter Michaela.
