Fraud advice to businesses in Swanley

Protect and Prevent officers visited businesses in Swanley to share advice on how they can help keep their customers safe from fraud.

Steve Kelly and Rob Slade popped into 12 town centre premises on Friday 24 June 2022 to hand out posters and talk to staff about courier fraud, which is a type of scam in which mostly elderly victims are tricked into handing over large sums of cash to criminals.

It usually involves someone pretending to be a police officer or bank employee asking the victim to withdraw money to assist in an investigation, with a courier then travelling to their home to collect the cash.

Stephen Beattie of the Step Inn Café was among those visited and who immediately started to dispense advice to his customers.

He said:

‘This is a great initiative by Kent Police as we get quite a few elderly people in here who are targeted by fraudsters and I am always happy to try and help them.’

Kent Police’s Prevent and Protect officers will be carrying out similar initiatives at other town centres across Kent, and will next be in Sevenoaks on Friday 15 July.

Steve Kelly said: ‘Elderly people are unfortunately those most frequently targeted by fraudsters but many do not regularly use the internet and are therefore unaware of the tricks criminals use to try to steal their hard-earned money.

‘We are very grateful for the support of businesses like those we visited in Swanley in sharing our crime prevention messages with their customers, as together we can make it much more difficult for criminals to succeed with their disgraceful tactics.

‘Our message is to remember the ABC rule to help protect yourself and others against fraud – never Assume someone is telling the truth or Believe what they say unless you are confident of their identity, and always Confirm the details they have provided.’