Around 70,000 people in the UK have been called as part of the country's biggest ever phone fraud, which has now been brought down by the police.
Crooks have been ringing unsuspecting residents, posing as bank staff, in a bid to steal tens of millions of pounds from accounts - in what police say is the "biggest fraud operation ever run in this country".
Since investigations into the elaborate ploy began, there have been 120 arrests made in the UK.
Read more: The latest scams being used by fraudsters to con people out of their cash or personal details
The Mirror reports that potential UK victims of the con will be alerted by police forces this week - in part of Britain's biggest ever cyber fraud probe involving a phone number scam site. Each of the UK numbers which have been called by criminals using the site will be alerted in a Met Police text message today or tomorrow - asking them to get in touch with the force.
The widespread scam helped crooks appear as if they were calling from banks, with scammers requesting victims' passwords and siphoning money from their accounts.
Of the suspects, 103 were in London, including the alleged mastermind behind fraud website, iSpoof. Scotland Yard have worked with the likes of the FBI, Europol and Dutch Police for over a year to help bring down the site, with victims believed to have lost a collective sum in excess of £48m.
On the operation, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, said: “This is the biggest fraud operation we have ever run in this country.”
One victim lost as much as £3m from the scam, with the average loss among the 4,785 people reported being targeted is £10,000. During one stage of the ploy, around 20 people each minute were being called by scammers.
Around 10 million fraudulent calls were made around the world via iSpoof in the year to this August. On a global scale, there are thought to be some 200,000 victims and 59,000 potential suspects who used the website itself.
For a fee of up to £5,000 each month, the service allowed criminals to mask their real phone number.
Det Supt Helen Rance, at the Met, said other similar websites remain active. She added: “We are aware we haven’t solved this problem.”
The alleged site administrator Teejai Fletcher, 35, was arrested in East London this month. He is due to appear in court next month to face charges of making or supplying articles for use in fraud, as well as being a member of an organised crime outfit.
The server for iSpoof was initially based in the Netherlands, before relocating to Ukraine.
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