There have been several queries over the last few days where e-mails are being sent in relation to ‘Cash back’ and ‘check your receipts’.

Enquiries have been made by the Police and these have been found to be unsubstantiated. We have no reported victims within the Derbyshire area.

Check Your Receipts – Cash Back Scam Warning Email

Outline
Message warns shoppers to always check their receipts before leaving the check-out at Sainsbury’s and other UK stores because many people are being caught out by a scam in which unscrupulous cashiers add unauthorized cash back requests to transactions and pocket the cash rather than give it to customers.

Brief Analysis
The warning is unsubstantiated. There is no credible evidence to support the claim that such a scam is regularly or commonly taking place in the UK. The UK based message is nothing more than a mutated version of earlier US based warnings that have circulated since 2004. The US versions are also unsubstantiated and unsupported by any credible evidence.

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A recipient has received an e-mail with content as below from someone purporting to be from HSBC:

“Subject: Message & Alerts: 1 Message From Customer Services

We found out that your online banking account was access from a different IP that we do not know. And as our latest security update we screen all accounts for all our customers safety and security. To this we have temporary placed a suspension holding on this account. Resolve this error to continue your normal banking without further disturbance. Its very simple Sign in from your computer we recognise and the resolution is complete. We are always here to help all our customers.

Customer Help.”

This recipient does not bank with HSBC!

As stated in previous messages, please be extra vigilant.