Police Scotland today issued a warning regarding another Royal Mail fake text scam where an Aberdeenshire resident has lost nearly £10,000.

North East Division crime reduction officer PC Mark Irvine warned: “We are reminding everyone to look out for such scams as anyone with a mobile phone could be a target.”

On receiving a text message which they believed was from the Post Office, advising they had a missed a parcel, they clicked on the link to what looked like the genuine post office website.

They input their name, date of birth and address in order to choose a new delivery date. They also had to input card details as it requested she paid a £2.50 delivery fee, which they did, as they were awaiting a delivery. Shortly afterwards, they received a phone call from an English male voice spoke who identified himself as being from her bank, advising there was fraudulent activity on their account. A further text was received, advising of an attempt to remove money.

The male advised account had been hacked and he would set up a new account to transfer funds in to.

Someone from the bank IT advised they download a mobile phone application called Any Desk which they did, resulting in them transferring the cash. If you receive a suspicious message via email, website or text message, you can take the following actions:

• Email – if you feel unsure about an email you have received, you can forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Services at report@phishing.gov.uk

• Website – If you have come across a website which you think is fake, you can report it here – https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website

• Text message – Report suspicious text messages for free to 7726. Your provider can investigate the text and take action if found to be fraudulent.