MORE than £1 million of fraudulent transactions have been prevented by banks working to protect vulnerable people from being swindled out of their savings.
Northumbria Police works with UK Finance, a number of high street banks and building societies and the Post Office to catch offenders in the act and provide a more rapid response to fraud.
As part of the scheme, counter staff have been trained to spot suspicious activity and act as ‘critical friends’ to anyone they believe to be vulnerable to criminal activity.
In 16 months, the team have prevented a total of £1,004,137 worth of fraudulent transactions from taking place.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fairlamb, from the intelligence unit, said: “One of the significant challenges of this kind of crime is that by the time such offences are reported to police it is often too late to save the victim’s money, but by working with our banking partners we have been able to save more than £1 million.
“I want to praise everyone involved in this initiative for making it a success.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here