Police To Text 70,000 Victims In UK’s Biggest Anti-fraud Operation
The Metropolitan Police is sending text messages to mobile phone users it believes spoke with fraudsters pretending to be their bank.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described an "enormous endeavour" in gathering evidence after the discovery of an online fraud network. There have been more than 100 arrests so far, and one man has been charged.
People who receive a text message in the next 24 hours will be directed to the Action Fraud website to register their details as officers build cases against suspects. Sir Mark told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Met was contacting mobile numbers that were connected to the fraudsters for longer than a minute, suggesting a fraud or attempted fraud had taken place. The scam involved fraudsters calling people at random, pretending to be a bank and warning of suspicious activity on their account.
