Police are urging people to be alert to a growing scam where criminals are posing as police officers and asking their victims to take part in a fake undercover operation.
Fraudsters are contacting members of the public, usually by phone, purporting to be from the police, or in some cases the fraud team within their bank.
The criminal claims they are investigating a fraud at a local bank branch where staff are suspected of being complicit, including issuing fake bank notes, and asks their target to help in the operation.
As part of the scam, the individual is requested to visit the branch and withdraw a substantial sum, often thousands of pounds, of the supposedly counterfeit cash to hand over to the ‘police’ for ‘analysis’.
In another version of the scam, the criminal convinces the victim to transfer money to a so-called ‘safe account’ to protect their funds from the ‘corrupt’ bank staff. However, the account is in fact controlled by the criminal.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/bogus-cops-steal-thousands-fake-13970180