Relatives of the elderly can help them in the fight against scams

Police tell of two such elderly victims of fraud, one of whom in Dungannon was told to pay money to get a £1.3 million win.

On page 14, we report in greater depth on a man from Ballymena, Jonathan Leakey, who is not old but who was defrauded of money from his and his wife’s account.

Dr Leakey’s experience is chilling because scammers found their way into his bank’s text stream, and sent a plausible message to his phone saying that there was fraudulent activity on his card. Anyone who was told that in a believable message would be alarmed, and could rush to divulge banking information to avoid losing money.

Dr Leakey has a computer related PhD so is more technologically skilled than most people, yet still was cheated.

One lesson from these stories is to be sceptical of someone who tells you have won money. But more generally police advise people never to give personal or financial information to an unverified source via email or phone.

They also say it is important to talk to older members of family, and tell them that legitimate providers will never seek details, such as banking information, over the phone.

It is, as PSNI said in a recent appeal, “a really important conversation to have”.

The advice is always to err on the side of caution.

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