Man Scammed Out Of £17,500 In NI

Police have issued a warning to the public after a man was scammed out of £17,500 in Northern Ireland.

The man received a phone call from a woman claiming to be from British Telecom at around 3.30pm on Monday, 26 February.

Detective Constable Ruth Gallagher said: "The caller was able to tell the injured party he had been experiencing internet problems for some time, and that his IP address was being used elsewhere and he needed to get rid of it. The caller then transferred the injured party to another male, who she described as a 'technician'.

"The 'technician' told the injured party to search for his IP address online, which he did. The search informed the injured party the IP location was Mountain View, California USA.

"The 'technician' then directed the injured party to download two programs, which gave the suspect remote access to the injured party’s computer, including emails and online banking. The 'technician' asked the injured party to go to a modem, which he was aware was in another room, and told him another modem from BT would be delivered that evening. This appeared to allow the technician time to make internal transactions on the injured party’s bank accounts. The 'technician' asked the injured party to input codes that had been provided by bank to allow the security program to run and then said the security program would take a while and suggested the injured party make a cup of tea.

"The 'technician' then told injured party to keep his phone line on, and the BT engineer delivering the modem later that day would disable this."

The conversation ended, however later on that evening the man heard a buzzing tone from his telephone. He was suspicious and checked his bank account to discover around £17,500 had been withdrawn."

(CD)