An Isle of Man Bank customer who fell victim to fraudsters ended up losing nearly £200,000.

The victim sent packages of gold in a shoebox to an address in London after scammers convinced them they were from the bank’s fraud team and there had been suspicious activity on the customer’s card.

Unfortunately, the scammer got in touch just a short while after the customer had encountered genuine problems with their bank card and had been told the bank’s fraud team would contact them. This meant they were not suspicious of the call.

The issue has been revealed in the Cyber Security Centre for the Isle of Man’s (CSC) latest reports covering the last two months of 2024.

The report says: ‘The fraudster convinced the victim to assist with the supposed investigation by purchasing £20,000 worth of gold and sending it to a specified address in London.

‘Trusting the caller, the victim purchased the gold from a local dealer in Douglas and mailed it in a shoebox via recorded delivery to the address provided.

‘Over time, the fraudsters maintained regular contact with the victim, claiming the investigation was ongoing and requesting additional assistance. They persuaded the victim to purchase another £150,000 worth of gold.

‘The fraud came to light when the victim travelled to the UK to visit family. Upon learning of the significant financial transactions and gold shipments, the victim’s family immediately contacted authorities to report the situation.

‘Scammers often strike when people are caught off guard, and happen to act at a time that ‘makes sense’ to a victim.

‘This highlights the importance of education about common fraud schemes, the need for independent verification of claims and the value of open communication about financial matters within families.’

In another case, a victim lost £200,000 in life savings after falling victim to a cryptocurrency scam which unwittingly involved a Manx-based firm.

Three cases of possible sextortion were also reported to the CSC in November and December.

As part of the Isle of Man Government’s Cyber Security Strategy, the CSC operates a Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS), allowing residents to forward suspicious emails for analysis. The CSC received 2,721 suspicious emails with 70 deemed criminal.

The most common – with 13 – were fraudulent or scam websites but there were three cases of possible sextortion which means people can be coerced into providing sexual acts or victims can be blackmailed with the threat of sending or releasing sexual images or information about the individual.

There were also nine cases of smishing which is when scammers send of malicious links by test messaging to steal personal information or money.

There were also two cases of romance fraud as well as phishing (fraudulent emails) and vishing which is voice phishing (phone calls).

Other reported cases include a fake Facebook page offering six months free travel for £2 which contained a link to an external site which asked a series of generic questions and then ask the visitor to click on a giftbox.

The report says: ‘After that a new page would open to enter personal and card details and an initial payment of €2 was taken from the card.

‘Following on from this, victims reported other attempted charges to the card, as well as multiple emails encouraging users to sign up for services. We received several reports from victims of the scam, all of which were encouraged to contact their banks and have cards cancelled or frozen.’

There were further reports of manx.net scams with 60 accounts recently compromised in a targeted phishing attack telling them to update their details. The CSC, alongside Manx Telecom suspended the accounts.