POLICE are warning people to be on their guard against a new gift voucher fraud.
Emails have been sent out by scammers appearing to be from a friend or colleague. In it, they ask the recipient to buy a gift card, saying they can’t do it themselves as they are in a meeting or can’t get to a shop, but will reimburse as soon as possible.
Thames Valley Police said that the email will also likely ask the victim to photograph the cards and send the unique codes printed on them. This allows the scammer to use the gift cards to make online purchases.
The force advises that recipients do not buy any gift cards. If in doubt, contact the friend or colleague via another method such as calling them, to see if they really did make the request.
Anyone working in retail is asked to be on guard for this scam, and phishing emails can be reported by forwarding the email to: report@phishing.gov.uk
