Police are warning about scam life insurance calls after the Chair of ScamwiseNI was targeted.
PSNI Superintendent Gerard Pollock said he answered the call which had faked a local telephone number to make the scam more convincing.
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.”
He said criminals rely on people saying they do have a policy.
The PSNI superintendent was contacted out of the blue, so he hung up the call and reported the incident.
“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 www.actionfraud.police.uk 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.