Devon & Cornwall Police

Police – Operation Fardel

Operation Fardel is Devon and Cornwall Police response to a professionally run national scam that is attempting to defraud people, many of whom are vulnerable due to age, out of thousands of pounds.  The offenders are tending to exhaust opportunities in one particular area of the country before moving onto another.  Within our force area Torbay has been targeted but within the past few days West Cornwall, in particular Helston has been the focus where a number of victims have transferred money into the offenders back accounts.  Within the last 48 hours there are reports of over £130000 being taken.

The offender calls the victim purporting to be a police officer from the Metropolitan Police who are investigating a crime relating to fraudulent activity on the victim’s bank account.  They then convince the victim to either transfer their savings into another bank account or they obtain their bank details allowing them to withdraw money.

The priority when dealing with these matters is to prevent loss, safeguard the most vulnerable members of our community and increase awareness at the earliest opportunity.

Please ensure the following initial actions are taken:

  • Ring 101 and inform the Devon & Cornwall Police
  • Dial 1471 from the victims landline – this may reveal the caller’s number if the last call received was from the offender(s).
  • The priority is to prevent loss to the victim. As soon as possible establish if the victim has divulged bank detail/PIN numbers and contact banks with a view to cancelling the card/account and blocking transactions or any pending transactions. Assist with this if necessary.
  • Record details of the victim’s phone number and service provider. (BT/SKY/Virgin etc)
  • Establish when the offender(s) called and ascertain the number and duration of calls. It is important that we try to establish the approximate start and end times of the call.
  • Ask victim for details of the caller – male/female, did they use a name/title, accent and, importantly, the content of the call. How did they pass details of the PIN number – verbally or did they key in their number?

Above all – IF MONEY HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED, IF CAUGHT EARLY ENOUGH (WITHIN 24 HOURS) MONEY MAY BE RECOVERED.  Please contact the police as soon as possible.

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