No bank will ever send anyone to your door to collect your card. Credit: antoniodiaz / Shutterstock
Fraudsters posing as a bank’s fraud team are ringing customers about suspicious activity, then offering to send someone round to collect the card ‘for safety’. Spain’s National Police say that apparent protection is the theft itself, and the money can be gone within minutes.
A call about your account, then a knock at the door
The latest warning from the National Police describes a trick that’s easy to fall for because it feels like help. The call comes from someone claiming to work for the bank’s fraud team, with news of suspicious activity on your account. Then comes the offer. To protect your money, they say, the card has to be cancelled, and a colleague can pop round to collect it so you don’t have to go anywhere. Whoever turns up, though, isn’t from the bank, and the card is now theirs.
Police are pointing to the jump from a phone scam to a physical one, with a stranger at the door doing the part the caller can’t.
Almería has already seen it happen
It isn’t a brand new trick either. In June, National Police arrested three men in Almería after a victim received a text about an unauthorised charge, followed by a call from someone posing as the bank’s security department who spent more than an hour talking them through ‘cancelling’ it. The victim was told a bank worker would collect the cards, and minutes later a young man arrived at the home and took two of them, that were then used straight away for cash withdrawals, shop purchases and Bizum (Spain’s instant mobile payment app) transfers worth €6,377.10 in total.
The gang was caught when one suspect tried to buy two high-end phones worth €2,328 in an Almería shop, where the manager recognised him from an earlier purchase. One case doesn’t prove a wave of them, though it does show the doorstep part of the scam is a real threat.
No bank will ever send anyone to collect your card
No bank in Spain sends staff round to pick up a physical card, and the advice is the same in the UK. Britain’s fraud reporting service, Report Fraud, says banks and police will never come to your home to collect your card, which is why British readers may know this as courier fraud.
The pressure is part of the trick here, with the Almería caller keeping the victim on the line for over an hour. UK police advise pausing, then ringing your bank back on a number you trust, from a different phone or after waiting several minutes, because scammers can stay connected after you hang up.
What to do if someone has already taken your card
Block the card straight away through your bank’s app or official phone line, then check your recent transactions and keep every text, call record and receipt. You can report it to the Policía Nacional, the Guardia Civil or a court.
Make sure your bank hears about any payments you didn’t make. Bank of Spain guidance says the bank should cover unauthorised payments after you’ve alerted it, though earlier ones can be disputed if the bank argues the card wasn’t looked after properly. If it doesn’t resolve things, you can complain to the Bank of Spain.
So if a caller ever offers to send someone round for your card, hang up, ring the number on the back of it from a different phone, and don’t hand anything over at the door.