Police issue warning after woman falls victim to gift card scam in Melton
Police have issued a warning to residents after a Melton Mowbray woman got caught in a scam involving gift cards.
Traders used their radios to flag up the issue after identifying the victim buying high value gift cards in various town centre shops and preventing her from losing any more money, although she is understood to have lost a ‘significant sum’ to the fraudsters.
Pcso Malcolm Durrant, of the Melton neighbourhood policing force, posted on their Facebook page: “We believe there may be other victims in the Melton area recently so if you do have elderly relatives in the family, perhaps someone you know or a, older neighbour, you can help them by passing on this message.
"The MO (modus operandi) tends to be that victims are called and instructed to go off and buy gift cards that you can top up with large amounts of money and then give these details, and thus the monies, to the scam caller to pay some imaginary bill.”
Melton BID said the incident with the woman victim highlighted the value of having the SMART phone group, where more than 100 traders can alert each other via mobile when suspicious activity is taking place in or near a town centre business.
BID manager James Colclough told the Melton Times: “Through the radio links, shops were able to communicate and identify this lady, prevent any further purchases and involve the police.
“The scam was uncovered and sadly the lady had lost a significant sum, but Action Fraud were assisting her.
“It would be good to highlight the warning signs around these scams to Melton residents but all credit to the shops for linking up via SMART and noticing the pattern.
“Apparently other Melton victims are being assisted too.”
Individuals are urged to be wary of urgent requests for payment via gift card and never share gift card codes with anyone, as legitimate organisations do not ask for them as payment.
Anyone concerned they may be a victim of this kind of fraud is advised to go online at www.actionfraud.police.uk or to call police on 101 or visit the station on King Street.