An elderly Whittlesey resident in her 80s was taken advantage of when she was scammed of £8,000 after ‘investigators’ pressured her into handing over the money.
A spokesperson for the police said the vulnerable woman received a call from a withheld number just before Christmas from a man who said his name was DC Shepherd from the police fraud squad and that £250 had been taken from her bank account and two men were in custody for it.
The person acting as ‘DC Shepherd’ urged the elderly lady to withdraw cash from her account and leave it in a safe place under her wheelie bin at the front of her home for detectives to collect as part of the investigation.
Keen to help and concerned for her savings, the victim went to the bank and withdrew £5,000 from one account and a further £3,000 from another before placing the money in an envelope under her wheelie bin for someone to collect moments later.
The police’s cyber and fraud prevention officers have seen an increase in courier fraud scams where people are asked to leave cash in “safe places” to be collected later by investigators, or in some cases, people are asked to send cash and other valuables to addresses elsewhere in the country.
The spokesperson said: “Traditionally, courier fraudsters would send a ‘courier’ to collect cash from victims in person, but this marks a recent change of tack.”
Ghoster@FC©