A WARNING has been issued about cyber criminals taking advantage of the NHS roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccination programme to try to steal vulnerable people's bank or credit card details.

The scam sees a person receive a text message saying they need to book a vaccination appointment.

Clicking the link in the message takes the victim to a fake NHS form, which asks for the person's bank details and/or a credit or debit card number to prove their identity.

Anyone who receives the text message is advised to delete it immediately.

Councillor Abdul Jabar, Bradford Council’s executive member for neighbourhoods and community safety, said: “These scams follow a usual pattern.

"The same tactics have been used in the past to trick people into mistakenly believing they have an Amazon gift card to claim, or that their Netflix password has been compromised.

"What makes this latest scam so despicable is that it's specifically targeting elderly and vulnerable people.

"These are the groups most likely to be in line for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination and more likely to fall prey to these types of scams.

"They might not be as familiar with technology as younger people or might not have encountered this type of online scam before. That's something the cyber crooks are clearly hoping they can cash in on."

He says the NHS won’t ask for people’s credit/debit card number or banking information.

For more information, you can download a Government information leaflet about texting scams at cfa.nhs.uk/resources/downloads/fraud-awareness/covid-19/COVID-19_SMS_and_Text_Message_Scams.pdf.