Telephone scam alert for Southport residents

News from Southport Policing Team

Telephone Scam

Falsifying personal details to obtain a brand new top of the range phone.

This scam involves 2 people working together –

Scammer 1 rings the phone provider pretending to be the owner of the phone stating they want to upgrade their phone and change their home address details.

At the same time Scammer 2 rings the genuine owner of the phone stating that someone has tried to buy a new phone on their account and change their address. To verify the call is genuine they tell the owner that they will receive a security code sent to their mobile phone.

Scammer 1 who is still on the phone to mobile provider company is told by the provider that they will receive a security code to ‘their’ phone for them to verify authorisation.

The code is sent to the genuine person’s phone who is still on the phone to scammer 2. Scammer 2 then passes the security code to scammer 1.

Scammer 1 then tries to order a top of the range phone to be sent to the new address in the resident’s name.

The resident became uneasy about the situation and contacted their phone provider who confirmed a scam had taken place, but luckily for them the phone was out of stock and they were able to cancel the order and reinstated the correct address for the resident.