People have been warned to keep an eye out for a text from the police over the next 48 hours as the force attempt to crack down on fraudsters.
Households up and down the country are being urged not to ignore texts from the Metropolitan Police - even if you don't live in London - in a major crackdown.
Normally, a text from someone claiming to be the police may raise alarm bells. But 70,000 texts will be sent out over the next two days, to help Metropolitan Police with their investigations about scammers.
It comes after the police in the UK came across a huge fraud operation involving "number-spoofing", which is where scammers change their caller ID to hide their true identity.
Instead, they masquerade as something "trusted" such as the person's bank, the Mirror reports.
It is thought up to 200,000 people in the UK were conned out of £50million by criminals using a website called iSpoof.
The website targeted around 20 people per minute in what the police described as an "online fraud shop". One victim lost £3million and the average loss among the 4,785 people who have reported being targeted to Action Fraud is £10,000.
Some 35% of the scam calls were made here in the UK, with 40% in the USA and the rest spread around different countries worldwide.
The iSpoof site has now been shut down and 120 people have been arrested for using it.
Detective Superintendent Helen Rance, who leads on cyber crime for the Met, said: "By taking down iSpoof we have prevented further offences and stopped fraudsters targeting future victims.
"Our message to criminals who have used this website is we have your details and are working hard to locate you, regardless of where you are."
The Met has issued some guidance on how to spot a genuine text from the force, which will be sent out to those potentially targeted in the next 48 hours.
Texts from the police - what to look out for
The Met is only texting potential scam victims today and tomorrow (November 24 and 25). If you receive a message outside of this time, it could be a scam.
In the text, it will tell you to visit this website - met.police.uk/elaborate - but won't have a link, and instead ask the person to type the address directly into their browser.
People all over the UK will be contacted, not just those living in London.
You should never give any personal details away if you think you're being scammed. Instead, hang up the phone immediately and try to find alternative contact details online for whichever company supposedly called.
Call up the company or bank with the number you found yourself to check if the call was legitimate.
Never call back the number provided by the caller.
You should also call the 159 hotline and report the scam to Action Fraud.
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