Cambridgeshire police cyber security advisor, Nigel Sutton, has this important warning:

Are you clued up on OTPs? That’s right, one-time passcodes!

Those annoying messages that pop up every now and again asking you to verify an online purchase.   As irritating as they can be when you’re trying to complete a transaction, these passcodes – which are usually sent to your mobile phone via text message – provide a vital defence in the fight against fraud to ensure thieves and scammers can’t make purchases with your card details.  

However, fraudsters have discovered a workaround and are now calling customers pretending to be from the bank or a trusted organisation, such as the police, requesting OTPs, which they can then use to make a fraudulent transaction.
 
June saw the highest number of suspected OTP scams nationally and there have been just over 3,000 successful scams reported in the last six months, 57 of which were in Cambridgeshire.   

Remember, your bank will never ask you to share an OTP, neither will we. Keep them to yourself!
 
For more on fraud, visit the dedicated pages of the Cambridgeshire Police website, or visit our Neighbourhood Watch website at Cambridgeshire Neighbourhood Watch - Scams.