Barclays Winchesters join forces with police to raise scams awareness

The event, which was held at Barclays in Winchester on Thursday, November 7, saw PSCO Dawn Gretton speak to customers and advise them on how to protect themselves against financial fraud. 

This included sharing information on phone-based scams, email and text message scams, and online fraud.

PCSO Dawn Gretton said: “We recently held a fraud and scam awareness event at Barclays Bank, Winchester.

"The event was a great opportunity for members of the community to come and speak to us about the issue of fraud, how to detect fraudulent activity and what to do if you think you have fallen victim to a scammer.  We’re always happy to offer advice to members of our communities and would urge them to come along to future community meetings.”

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Scam awareness event in Winchester (Image: Barclays) The drop-in event came after Barclays warned its UK customers to be aware of scammers who make people think they’re dealing with a person or company they trust. 

Scammers are known to impersonate people or companies to convince unsuspected consumers to send them money. The branch team was keen to advise customers to always be suspicious of unexpected requests for money and to contact a number they know is genuine before they pay to check the request is real.

• Barclays urges customers to stay safe from fraud by following simple advice:
• Be suspicious of urgent or unusual requests for money by text, chat, email, or phone call
• Don’t click links in unexpected emails, chat or text messages

If a company unexpectedly asks for money, get their phone number from their official website and call to confirm that the request is real.

For more information and advice go to barclays.co.uk/fraud-and-scams or from police at nbcc.police.uk/crime-prevention/cyber-and-fraud/little-book-of-big-scams-fifth-edition