Fraudsters Steal Woman’s Life Savings Of Over £23,000

Fraudsters have stolen a woman’s life savings of over £23,000, after she fell victim to the so-called ‘DPD Scam’.

The 44-year-old, who lives in a village near Market Harborough, was sent an email purporting to be the parcel firm about re-arranging a delivery for small fee.

She clicked on a link to a fraudulent website and provided personal and bank details, but became suspicious and contacted her bank to close her personal account.

However, the following day she was called by a man claiming to be from her bank, saying he was investigating unusual activity on her account.

The victim gave the fraudster other details about her banking, which enabled him to transfer the money out of her business account.

She had been saving the money since she was 16 years old, for a deposit to buy a house, and agreed to speak to Hfm about the ordeal anonymously, in a bid to stop others falling victim to the scam:

A spokesperson for Action Fraud, who investigated, told Hfm: “The report was assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau at the City of London Police, which found there were not any leads that would result in a successful criminal investigation at this time.”

The woman’s bank are investigating the incident.

The fake email like the one the woman was sent

Pauline Smith, Head of Action Fraud, said: “Phishing messages are commonly used by criminals to gain access to our personal and financial details, leaving them free to commit fraud and take your money.

“Criminals are relying on the fact that we may need to reschedule a delivery to make their communication seem genuine. Remember, if something feels wrong then always question it.”

A spokesperson for DPD, said: “We are aware that there have been a number of fake DPD emails trying to get consumers to send money for parcels to be re-directed. We would never do this nor would we ask consumers to give us their bank details.

“There is an easy way to check the email is safe, only emails sent from one of three DPD email addresses are genuine. These are dpd.co.uk, dpdlocal.co.uk or dpdgroup.co.uk. Fake or scam emails are nearly always sent from a private email address and certainly not from an official DPD one. Any other sender email address, especially if the email is asking for money is highly likely to be a scam email.

“We would encourage anyone who has received a fake email to report it to report@phishing.gov.uk.”