Melton pensioners targeted by callous fraudsters

Two people in Loughborough were also conned out of more than £17,000 in cash while the Melton duo managed to avoid being caught out after becoming suspicious.

All four people were targeted this month in incidents of courier fraud, where a fraudster contacted the victims by telephone claiming to be a police officer.

On December 9, an 89-year-old Melton woman received a call telling her to withdraw £3,500 from her account due to an issue with her bank.

Fortunately, she mentioned it to her son and although she had already taken the money out of her account she didn’t hand the cash over.

Police also received a further call on the same day from a 65-year-old man in Melton who had been told a man had been arrested and had in his possession a number of credit cards, including one in his name. He realised it was a scam and ended the call.

The two victims from Loughborough were not so lucky – on December 1 a 69-year-old woman handed over £8,000 in cash after she was told fraudsters were targeting her bank and accessing accounts.

The woman was told to withdraw her money to help catch the offenders in the act and a man then collected the money from the victim and left.

And on December 9, a 92-year-old man was conned out of £9,500 after he received a number of calls telling him his credit card had been cloned and was being used to buy a Rolex watch.

He was told to hand over the cash as part of the police’s investigation to help trace counterfeit money. The scammers then tried a second time, attempting to get a further £7,500 from the victim but this transaction was declined.

Leicestershire Police’s Economic Crime Unit (ECU) are investigating these reports and ask anyone with information to get in touch.

They are also issuing a warning to people across the force area to be aware of these types of calls in the hope others don’t fall victim.

Nicole McIntyre, from the ECU, said: “It is often with this offence that perpetrators target elderly or vulnerable people.

"They sound genuine and work quickly to gain the trust of the person they are calling.

“In the last 12 days we have seen four people fall victim to this type of fraud, two of them parting with a significant amount of money.

“I want to inform our communities to hopefully stop it happening to anyone else. Please make sure for anyone with elderly or vulnerable family or friends you are ensuring they are aware too.

“The police would never contact you and ask you to withdraw money. If you get a call like this please hang up. If you need to contact your bank following a call like this please try to use a different line as fraudsters can stay on the line even after you have hung up.”

Anyone who thinks they have been a victim of courier fraud can report it online HERE or call police on 101.