Beware scams asking you to transfer money between bank accounts

Phone scams are tricking victims into transferring money to bank accounts operated by cyber-crooks.

We have seen a rise in reports of telephone scams whereby crooks are telling victims their bank accounts have been compromised and they need to transfer money from their account into a “safe” bank account.

Usually pretending to represent law enforcement, tax entities or the victim’s bank, cyber-crooks will contact victims over the phone claiming the victim’s bank account has been compromised. They go on to urge the victim to transfer money to a “safe” bank account while the issue is sorted.

But there is no “safe” bank account. The crooks are tricking the victim into transferring money over to bank accounts operated by them. And as soon as soon as the crook’s bank account receives the money, it is transferred again and again, going through an array of funnelling techniques designed to prevent a paper trail.

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Sometimes these scam telephone calls are automated, and sent out to thousands and thousands of potential victims until someone bites.

However, in more convincing (and successful) cases, these scam telephone calls are targeted. This means the crooks know who their victims are and are armed with information about them. Often this information is gleaned from other scams, such as smishing scams where victim’s are duped into visiting spoof websites and entering their personal information into them (like those fake “pending delivery” text scams, like the one that recently tricked a UK couple out of their savings.) More information on avoiding text scams is here.

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The advice to avoid these types of scams is simple –

Never transfer your money from your bank account to another account on the advice of someone over the phone.

Or, for that matter, someone over email, SMS or social media either.

The reality is simple – no legitimate person or entity will need you to do this. Not your bank, not the police, not the IRS or HMRC. No one.

If a person’s bank account is potentially compromised, it can be frozen or have limitations placed on it to keep the money inside safe. And if needed the bank can cancel direct debits, standing orders or credit/debit cards that could be used to withdraw money from the account. Consequently, there will never be any need to transfer the money out of the account into a new one.

So if someone asks you to do just that, hang up the phone. It’s a scam.