![\"File](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/d31df604-5d85-463c-9a52-ac9668ef8c8a.jpg\")
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File photo of someone using a computer (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n
A Co Down woman has been scammed out of thousands of pounds from her bank after being targeted by criminals earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Police said the woman reported the incident to police on Tuesday after two of her banks where she holds business accounts contacted her to advise of fraudulent activity detected.<\/p>\n
Police said a \u201csignificant amount\u201d of money had been taken from the accounts and said the hacker appears to have been from outside Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
PSNI local chief inspector for Ards and North Down, Keith Hutchinson, said: \u201cOn Tuesday, 5th August we received a report from a member of the public who had been contacted by not one, but two banks where she has business accounts set up.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth banks advised that there had been fraudulent activity on the victim\u2019s banking accounts and that a significant amount of money in each had been taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cA number of police enquiries were conducted, but as the hacker did not appear to reside in Northern Ireland, the matter has since been referred to Action Fraud for further assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith criminals using increasingly sophisticated methods to gain access to individuals\u2019 banking details, often through phishing emails, scam phone calls or text messages impersonating legitimate and reputable companies, it\u2019s making it harder for members of the public to spot the truth, in that these people are criminals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to remind the public to never share their banking passwords, PINs, or one-time verification codes to anyone, even if they claim to be from your bank. Victims are often contacted unexpectedly and pressured into providing sensitive information or transferring money, so please be on your guard at all times. Protecting your personal banking details is essential.<\/p>\n
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File photo of someone using a computer (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n
News Catch Up – Thursday 7th August <\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way to fight scams and not lose money is to Stop. Check. Report. By following these simple rules, you could avoid becoming a victim of this type of crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further information and advice can be found at: http:\/\/www.nidirect.gov.uk\/scamwiseni or the ScamwiseNI Facebook page @scamwiseni.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File photo of someone using a computer (Alamy\/PA) A Co Down woman has been scammed out of thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[6722,1144,1610,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-327957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-christopher-leebody","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114993357427068974","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}