The Bermuda Police Service has warned the public that scam artists have been contacting residents on Google Meet as part of a banking fraud.

A BPS spokesman said that scammers have been known to use a range of different addresses to pose as bank officials and claim to be looking into fraudulent activity to gain access to banking details.

The spokesman said: “A Google Meet call from banksecurity1@cartnet.co.uk or some similar address is a known scam tactic used to impersonate customer support.

“Legitimate banks do not initiate unexpected Google Meet video, or voice calls with customers.”

The spokesman said that as part of the scam, fraudsters add their target’s e-mail address to a Google Calendar event or place a direct Google Meet call from a fake address so that it rings directly on their phone or computer.

He said: “Once a victim joins a Meet call, the scammer pretends to be a fraud agent and asks them to share their screen so they can steal one-time passcodes, PINs or login details.

“Because the call comes through the Google Meet or Gmail app rather than your standard mobile network, it bypasses traditional phone number blocking.”

Those who receive such Google Meet calls are advised to use the app to block or report the caller’s account so they cannot call again.

Meanwhile, those who receive Google Calendar invites are urged to go into settings and selecting the option that only allows invites from known senders so fake invites do not appear automatically.

Some of the fake e-mail addresses that have been reported are; hsbc@customarcar-carcom.org, hsbcofficial7@customar-car.org, hsbcofficial25@customarcar-carcom.org, t81860519@gmail.com, securityb944@gmail.com and banksecurity1@cartnet.co.uk.