The need for careful disposal of shop and cashpoint receipts has been underlined by Croydon’s trading standards team following a resident’s brush with conmen trying to access her card account.
The attempted scam started with a phone call to the Norbury woman from somebody claiming to work for her bank. She was told that, due to a technical mistake, an outstanding sum of money was due to be paid into her account.
Correctly quoting the last four digits of her card’s number, the caller asked her for the number of the account into which she would like the sum of money paid.
With alarm bells ringing, she said that if the caller, as claimed, represented her bank, the account number would be known to them. She was then asked her name, to which she replied: “Ann Boleyn”. Her sarcastic answer drew no questioning response from the caller.
Feeling that her suspicion that the she might be the victim of an attempted scam was correct, she immediately hung up the phone. She was, however, concerned that the caller had known the last four digits of her card number and reported the incident.
Councillor Mark Watson, cabinet member for communities, safety and justice
“This case highlights how important it is that people don’t simply discard their receipts when they’ve made a card purchase or used their card to access a cash machine.
“Those receipts often display the last four digits of the card’s number, with the preceding12 not being revealed. As in this instance, conmen use the little information they’ve been able to glean from the receipt, to try to get the cardholder to reveal more information about themselves and their account details.
“This resident was alert to that possibility and hung up the phone without revealing the requested details, but others might be caught at a time when their defences aren’t quite so keen and, trusting that they’re talking to their bank, tell all – with expensive consequences.
“Be sure to dispose of receipts carefully – take them home and shred them.”
