Crime & Policing

FRAUD ALERT: ‘Well organised’ and ‘rehearsed’ phone scammers continue to target Yorkshire pensioners

York residents have been targeted in three separate fraud incidents this week -This follows on from two similar reports earlier in the week in the Harrogate area in which the unsolicited callers claimed to be from calling from police fraud squads.

These fraudsters are extremely well organised and rehearsed and use a range of tricks and lies to convince their victims into trusting them.

Police cannot stress enough that neither they or anyone from a bank would never ask you to withdraw or transfer money, or send someone to collect money from you, even with a password.

In York, the first victim, a woman in her 70’s, was phoned on Monday 23 April 2018 by a man who claimed to be a ‘Sergeant Wiggins’ and was calling from a 999 number.

He said that there has been suspicious activity on her account and that they needed her to visit a shop on Coney Street, York to purchase a Rolex watch, some euros and some money to help to rectify the situation.

At 10pm on Thursday 26 April a man called ‘Jamal’ arrived, in what is described as a ‘Speedy Delivery’ van. He provided the password ‘SUNFLOWER’, which had been given to the victim in an earlier phone call with ‘Sergeant Wiggins’ and left with the watch and money.

In total the value of the watch and money came to £40,000.

In a second incident, a husband and wife, both in their 70’s living in York, were contact two weeks ago from a man who said he was from a fraud squad.

He said that their account had been defrauded and they needed £3,000 from it so that they could investigate.

The couple withdrew the money and then, on Friday 20 April, an unknown person attended their address and collected the money.

In the third incident in York, a woman received a phone call on Thursday 26 April 2018 from a man called ‘Brian Park’ who claimed to be calling from Natwest’s Fraud Squad.

He said that there had been suspicious activity on her account and that someone had tried to pay for goods at Homebase and John Lewis for a sum of £1,645.

He said that he would block the transactions for her and get someone from HSBC to call her.

Following this, the victim received a phone call from what she believed was HSBC who said that the police and a fraud squad were investigating.

In the meantime, the caller convinced the victim that she would need to move her money to another account within 24 hours.

The victim visited her bank and transferred £7,800 into an account that had been provided to her over the phone.

The caller then said a Police Officer would visit her home address on Saturday 28 April. When she called North Yorkshire Police to confirm the details of the appointment it became apparent that she had become a victim of fraud.

Investigations are on-going and the victims are being supported by officers.

Please remember, the police or your bank will never:

⚠ Ask you to withdraw money to hand over to them for safe-keeping.
⚠ Ask you to transfer money to a safe account for fraud reasons or to aid an investigation, even if they say it is in your name.
⚠ Ask you to lie to your bank about why you are withdrawing or transferring money.
⚠ Send someone to your home to collect cash, PIN, cards or cheque books if you are a victim of fraud.
⚠ Ask you to purchase goods using your card and then hand them over for safe-keeping.
⚠ Phone and ask you for your PIN or full banking password, even by tapping them into your phone keypad.

More advice on how to protect yourself and your family from fraudsters can be found by visiting northyorkshire.police.uk/fraud

Related Articles

Back to top button

Adblock Detected

Please allow ads on our site Ads help pay for our website and content. Switch off your ad-blocker and enjoy.