Listeners of a Fife radio station are being scammed out of money by criminals posing as presenters.
Kingdom FM is among several stations being targeted by the cons, which involve fake Facebook accounts offering prizes that do not exist.
The crooks use photos of past and current presenters to make the pages look genuine and comment on Kingdom FM posts stating that listeners have been selected as competition winners.
The scammers then request personal details and bank account information.
Kingdom FM receives ‘heartbreaking’ calls from scammed listeners
Bosses at Kingdom FM say they have been left dealing with “heartbreaking” calls from listeners who have been caught out by the scam, with several saying they have lost money as a result.
Dave Connor, programme controller at the station, said: “Scammers are setting up fake Facebook accounts pretending to be Kingdom FM presenters.
“They steal photos from our website which makes the fake pages look absolutely genuine.
“What they then do is post replies to comments made on the genuine radio station page saying, ‘Congratulations! You’ve been randomly selected to win £1,000, just fill in your details to claim’.
“Listeners are then asked for credit card details for verification but, of course, all that happens is they empty your account.
“It’s heartbreaking when the victims then call us and we have to explain they’ve been scammed.”
Reporting scam accounts to Facebook ‘has no effect’
Dave added: “We ban these fake pages as soon as we see them pop up but they just go away and start another identical fake page days or hours later and do it again.
“Reporting them to Facebook has no effect – they just send a stock reply back that the fake pages don’t go against their community standards.
“It’s hugely frustrating.”
Original 106, based in Aberdeen, has also warned listeners after noticing similar posts and pages being set up.
The scammers are also targeting posts on the Kingdom FM Facebook page that are several years old.
One listener wrote on the Kingdom FM Facebook page: “They actually commented this morning on a post I put up three years ago to tell me I was a winner, wasn’t even a competition I posted about.”
Another posted: “I’ve reported the profile again and blocked it.
“It seems to be that they choose really old comments too, which is weird.”
Meta, which runs Facebook, has been contacted for comment.
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