Good afternoon,

We are seeing an high volume of in courier fraud in our constabulary area:

Courier fraud is a type of crime where victims, often vulnerable, are contacted by phone with the criminal purporting to be either from the victim’s bank or from the police. They will then keep the victim on the phone for an extended period to convince them of their authenticity, often having the victim hanging up and dialling 101 to speak with another officer. In this the caller controls the line and the victim will speak with either the same person or another criminal.

Criminals convince the victim of the need for secrecy, one method is to state that police are investigating the bank giving customers fraudulent money and they need the victim's assistance to solve the fraud.  If posing as the bank, they would say they were investigating a specific branch or employee etc.  Criminals will go as far as arranging transport for victims in these matters. 

The emerging MO we are seeing in these offences, rather than large withdrawals from banks, is that victims are being increasingly sent to Money Service Bureaux (MSB)/Bureaux de change to make withdrawals or are being asked to purchase high value commodities such as gold (recently in bullion) or high value luxury watches such as Rolex. These are either then posted to an address provided to the victim, having been packaged to disguise and collected by Royal mail or a courier who is part of the criminal network is sent to collect. 

It should be noted that the victims here have often been worn down during long calls with criminals where threat of loss and even criminal proceedings have been used to gain compliance and the value of the offences makes the time invested worthwhile. 

We are asking that you be vigilant to elderly and vulnerable customers approaching and seeking to purchase high value items, gold or withdraw large sums of money from an MSB rather than a bank. 

Please be curious and ask questions of the purpose for the withdrawal, purchase of a large amount of gold or luxury jewellery. If you are in any doubt as to the legitimacy of the reasons, please contact us via 999 and police will attend as a call for service. Whilst we would not ask that you detain the individuals, please ask that they wait for police and talk to them about the fraud and seek to reassure them. 

Police would never ask someone to withdraw a large amount of cash to be handed to someone at their door or be posted to them. Cash is not allocated to an individual account, only a value. Asking for cash would make no sense here. Neither police nor the bank would ask for high value items to be sent to them by way of either gold or jewellery being handed to a courier. 

If this message is not relevant to you, please share it with friends and family members who may find it more useful.

If you've been affected by a crime please contact Victim Care Hub for free, confidential support: Home - Hampshire Victim Care Hub (hampshireiowvictimcare.co.uk) or phone 0808 178 1641

If you would like to report a crime anonymously please contact: Independent UK charity taking crime information anonymously | Crimestoppers (crimestoppers-uk.org) or phone 0800 555 111

Hampshire Alerts is not a crime reporting portal – please do not report crime here.

If you realise you’ve been scammed and wish to report a fraud that has already happened, please report it to Action Fraud either phone 0300 123 2040 or online at: Action Fraud

If a crime is in progress, and/or you are in fear for yourself or someone else, and/or there is evidence in situ that could be damaged/destroyed, please phone 999 immediately. 

Otherwise, report online, or find out about other ways to report a crime at: Report a crime | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary

Thank you – Fraud Safeguarding Team