New scam claims to recover bank charges through the OFT

01 09 2007 United Kingdom

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has highlighted a new identity theft scam

A new scam has come to light where people receive phone calls claiming to be from the OFT and offering to reclaim unfair charges made by banks.

The caller seeks to obtain bank details and other personal information in order to commit identity theft fraud.

This scam cashes in on recent publicity given to a test case that will establish if the charges made by high street banks for unauthorised overdrafts were fair. The OFT has announced that the banks will be allowed to suspend refunding the charges until after the test case, which is scheduled to start next January.

The OFT has warned that the callers had no connection with them and that these callers were trying to get people's details in order to commit identity theft or run up debt in their name.

The OFT say that they will never contact people asking them for personal bank details.

If anyone has already given their details to a cold caller or in response to an email, the OFT advises them to contact their bank as soon as possible and check their credit card and bank account statements to see if there have been any unauthorised transactions.

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