Phone scam warning

The scam below is a fairly common one, but never the less people can be easily caught out, especially at this time of year, it appears they target the elderly or those vulnerable in the community. There are several posts on the internet about it such as here.

My father in law received yesterday a parcel delivery by DPD (innocent enough) containing a rather expensive mobile phone, which I hasten to add he did not order.

A short time later the scammer calls my father in law claiming the phone had been sent to him by mistake and they would send someone to collect the phone, also they tried to contact the driver to stop delivery etc. But the parcel was clearly labeled to him. There was even a 2 year contract with T-Mobile in the box with my father in laws details on it.

Anyway my father in law contacts the phone company and is told not to hand the phone over to anyone, that it is indeed a scam, and that they (phone company) would send a labeled large envelope to send the phone back to them, also he should inform the police.

Basically the scam works like this, (taken from the link above) a phone or, increasingly of late, phones, are mysteriously delivered to the victim's home. They haven't placed the order and so are not surprised when they receive a call saying there has been a mistake and the goods will be collected at a given time. However, rather than an innocent courier coming for them, it is the fraudster or a sidekick. Meanwhile the bill is in the victim's name.

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