Police are warning about scam life insurance calls
Following a report of a scam life insurance call targeting the Chair of ScamwiseNI Superintendent Gerard Pollock, local police in Northern Ireland are advising the public to be vigilant and reiterating that anyone can be a victim of scams.
Speaking following the incident, he said: “This call, like many others relies on your responses, your engagement for the scam to work and the best way to stop it is often to hang up the call.
“The caller told me they were ringing from a life insurance company I did not recognise about my life insurance policy. When I said ‘no’, the caller asked ‘you don’t have a life insurance policy?’ Before hanging up the call. This caller faked a local telephone number to make the scam more convincing which is a common trick of criminals.”
“These criminals rely on people saying yes, I do have a life insurance policy, that is the hook on which they reel you in, to gather either personal or financial details, for their gain and your loss.
“Applying the scam test will help you spot a scam and stop you becoming the victim of a scam:
- I was contacted out of the blue;
- To be asked for personal details or financial details;
“So I hung up the call and reported the incident to police.
“We would encourage members of the public to be extremely vigilant when it comes to this type of scam.
“Fraudsters are consistently coming up with more sophisticated ways to gain access to unsuspecting victims’ personal details and cheat people out of money. If you have received a call of this kind, or are concerned by the intent of unsolicited calls, emails, letters or text messages then please report it to Action Fraud via their website:
or by phoning 0300 123 2040, or call police on the non-emergency telephone number 101.
“For further advice and information visit:
www.nidirect.gov.uk/scamwiseni
“or the ScamwiseNI Facebook page @scamwiseni.”
And… if you receive a suspicious message, whether by email, website or text message you can take the following actions:
- Email – if you feel unsure about an email you have received, you can forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Services at: report@phishing.gov.uk
- Website – If you have come across a website which you think is fake, you can report it here Report a suspicious website: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website
- Text message – Report suspicious text messages for free to 7726. Your provider can investigate the text and take action if found to be fraudulent.
