Urgent – Have you received a call from someone purporting to be Hampshire & IOW Constabulary? #Stop!ThinkFraud

Good morning,

My colleagues who answer your 999/101 calls are reporting a recent increase in calls from residents of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight reporting they’ve received a vhishing phone call/text/message from someone purporting to be a police officer/staff employed by Hampshire & IOW Constabulary AND the number appears as one of our genuine, local police station phone numbers.  In the past week we’ve also received calls from local residents purportedly being contacted from police stations in the West Midlands policing area too.

Regular readers will know this is a common vhishing (cold calling to get personal/financial information) and spoofing (criminal hiding behind a genuine phone number) occurrence.

The Home Office advice to prevent fraud is Stop! Think Fraud. Hopefully by now, none of you are answering calls to unexpected, unsolicited, unverified numbers. 

However, if you do accidentally answer a call, or think you recognise the number, and the caller is someone purporting to be a police officer/staff (any rank, any police station, UK/overseas) please get their name and shoulder/collar number and which police force they apparently work and end the call without sharing any personal/financial information. 

If the caller states they work for Hampshire & IOW Constabulary you can contact a specific officer or member of staff here: Contact a specific officer or member of staff | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary if it’s genuine, the officer will get back to you, if there’s no match (ie: it’s a scam call) then we’ll let you know. 

Common scam calls of this type include:

For more information about phone fraud please see: https://stopthinkfraud.campaign.gov.uk/how-to-spot-fraud/how-to-spot-phone-fraud/

Please do share this important update with friends and family and encourage them to sign up for their own Hampshire Alert: https://www.hampshirealert.co.uk/ 

Hampshire Alerts is not a crime reporting portal – please do not report crime here.

If you realise you’ve been defrauded and wish to report a fraud that has already happened, please report it to Report Fraud either by phone 0300 123 2040 or online at: https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/ 

However, if a fraud or other crime is in progress, and/or you are in fear for yourself or someone else, and/or there is evidence in situ that could be damaged/destroyed, please phone 999 immediately. 

Otherwise, report non-fraud crime online, or find out about other ways to report a crime at: https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

If you would like to report a crime anonymously, please contact: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/ or phone 0800 555 111

If you've been affected by a crime please contact Victim Care Hub for free, confidential, support:  https://www.hampshireiowvictimcare.co.uk/  or phone 0808 178 1641

If you’ve received a phishing email please report it to your email provider and/or forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk 

If you’ve received unwanted phone calls or texts from people you think are trying to scam you, but you haven’t engaged with them, please forward the text/phone number to 7726 or your phone provider.

Thank you – Fraud Safeguarding Team