Najma Mohammad, from Paisley, who prevented a pensioner from being scammed out of £3,000 while working in the Premier Store in Paisley.
A quick-thinking worker at a Paisley Post Office stepped in to stop an elderly customer handing over thousands of pounds to crooks who had conned her into sending them cash.
The customer walked into the Premier store on Broomlands Street in the west end of the town on Wednesday afternoon to send something via the Post Office counter within.
Najma Mohammed – who works on the Post Office counter in the store – noticed the pensioner, who was a regular customer, was acting out of sorts and appeared “visibly shook”.
Kind Najma asked her what was wrong and was told that she was about to post £3,000 to her “bank” who had allegedly told her there was “unusual activity on her account” and that she should send them the cash so that they could “deposit it into a new account” for her.
Knowing that scammers target elderly people employing such tactics, Najma advised the customer that she should call her bank to verify if it really was them that was asking for the cash. When she did, they advised her that the call had definitely not come from them.
A spokesperson from Premier said: “When the customer came into the Post Office, she was visibly shook. As the customer was known to us, Najma thought that it was out of character and asked what was in the package.
“The customer hesitated and told her it was money at the sum of £3,000. She had managed to successfully withdraw this amount from her bank earlier.
“Najma immediately told her that this was likely to be a scam and told her to contact her own bank. While she did this the scammers kept calling back, this time however, Najma answered and they hung up. The bank confirmed that no such call had or would ever have been made demanding money.”
And it’s not the first time Najma has foiled scammers’ attempts at tricking vulnerable people to hand over their cash.
Staff at the Premier say that they are seeing multiple attempted scams. The store spokesperson added: “Could we please stress the importance of letting elderly/loved ones know about this on a regular basis, as this is sadly becoming more common.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson warned about the dangers of banking scams, they said: “The public should be aware that the thieves have a way of making it look like they are phoning from the legitimate bank’s phone number, however this is a scam and no genuine bank would ask you to carry out such an act.
“Should you receive a call similar to this then please do not cooperate with the caller and contact your bank independently to let them know what’s happened.
“Should you or a member of your family receive such a call please notify Police Scotland on telephone number 101.”