Elderly fraud victim scammed out of more than £8,000
A pensioner from Bridgnorth was scammed out of more than £8,000 after being phoned by cruel fraudsters.
Criminals, pretending to be from the Fraud Squad in London, telephoned the woman, who is in her 70s, and told her a fraudulent transaction had originated from her bank account.
They then told her to call 999 immediately, which she did.
However, the fraudsters had not cleared the line and instead continued with their scam.
The woman was then instructed to withdraw £8,150 from her bank in the town, which was later collected from her home address by a woman at 6pm on Tuesday.
Detective Inspector Emma Wright, from West Mercia Police, said: “This is a cruel fraud, abusing the trust that people have with organisations they think they can trust.
“I want to reassure people that detectives are investigating the offenders and that we are working with the victim, her bank and partner agencies to support both her and protect others from this type of scam.
“I would like to remind everyone the police will never ask you to pass funds to them in this manner.
"They will certainly never ask you to attend your bank to withdraw cash and hand it to a courier; if you or your family receive a call like this, hang up immediately.
“Please speak to your elderly family members, friends, customers and neighbours to make sure everyone is aware of this scam and they know to hang up the phone, wait 10 minutes which should clear the telephone line and then report it to police by calling 101 or report to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040.”
Anyone who has any information is urged to call police on 101, quoting incident 510i of November 16 or report it online at westmerciapolice.uk/tua/tell-us-about.
Alternatively, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
