Telephone con artists scam £750 from elderly man (From The Argus)
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Telephone con artists scam £750 from elderly man
1:10pm Thursday 19th January 2012 in News By Anna Roberts
A telephone scam which targets elderly and vulnerable people has been described as ‘evil’.
A 78-year-old man was conned out of £750.
The victim, from Portslade, was originally contacted by a man claiming to be from the bank fraud squad who said that money had been taken from his account.
He was persuaded to send £550 to fund the investigation.
A few days later he was contacted again and asked for a further £200 to get people arrested.
When he was contacted again with the news that three people had been arrested in India and a further £200 was required for court fees he contacted his bank and discovered that he had been the victim of fraud.
Kind-hearted police officers and their Twitter followers rallied round and paid it back to the victim.
PCSO Nick Packham said: “This is an evil scam that targets the most vulnerable members of our community.
“No doubt many of these criminals' calls are ignored, but just once in a while their stories find a victim, such as this gentlemen, who is taken in by them.
“He is obviously very upset and is concerned that he now has little money until his next pension payment comes through.
“We have had a whip-round in the station to help him along and I should like to express enormous thanks to several of our local Twitter followers who have offered both food parcels and cash.”
Police are now reminding people not to give any personal information – including their name, address, bank details, email or phone number – to organisations or people before verifying their credentials.
To report fraud or if you need advice, visit Action Fraud’s website www.actionfraud.org.uk, or call them on 0300 1232040.
