Police warn islanders about 'large-scale' scam

Guernsey Police said the fraudsters were "reportedly very convincing"

Guernsey Police is warning islanders about a "large-scale scam" which has seen several people's bank accounts emptied.

It said fraudsters were pretending to be from the banks NatWest or HSBC. Police said they were using the recent IT outage as a reason to call.

The force said the fraudsters were telling people they needed to recover their account. They would then signpost islanders to fake websites, or asked to download malicious software, police said.

The scam has targeted both individual account holders and businesses.

Guernsey Police said it had seen a "sharp rise" in reports of this type of scam in the last week.

The advice for anyone receiving a suspicious call is to hang up and contact your bank through another means.

It added that victims of scams should contact their bank's fraud team or call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.