'Don't let elderly relatives fall for phone scam' - Police
Two elderly people in Gloucestershire have lost £15k after being conned by fake police officers on the phone
Police are asking us to warn elderly relatives not to fall for conmen posing as police officers on the phone.
It's after two elderly people lost a total of £15,000 in two separate incidents in Gloucestershire in the past week.
In one incident on Wednesday 18 August, at around 11am the fraudster phoned an elderly man in Gloucester and claimed to be a DC Martin.
The fraudster claimed the victim's bank account had been compromised and that he needed to take cash out and move it to safe place.
The victim withdrew £8,000 in cash from his bank and arranged to meet a courier at a supermarket in Brockworth. When the victim's wife, who was delivering the cash, arrived she refused to hand it over to the courier who was a teenager on an electric scooter.
Later on, the fraudster phoned the victim and his wife back numerous times claiming they had 'compromised the operation'. The man and his wife then agreed to leave the cash in a bag between their wheelie bins for a fraudulent courier to collect and at 5pm a man on an electric scooter arrived and took the money.
The crime was reported to police a short while later.
In another scam on Monday 16 August, a woman in her 90s from Churchdown was called on her landline at 12.45pm by a man claiming to be DC Martin Thompson. He gave a fake badge number and proceeded to tell the woman that there had been fraudulent activity on her account.
He then asked the victim if she would help with their enquiries and that if she did she needed to act quickly.
Under the direction of the scammer the woman went to her bank and lied about the reason she was withdrawing more than £4,000 in cash.
She returned to her car which was parked in Cheltenham when the trickster on the phone told her to wait for a man in a grey tracksuit to tap on her window and then to hand over the cash.
A man in a grey tracksuit arrived and took the money from her. He was described as being white, 25 to 30-years-old, of a slim build and around 5ft 10ins tall.
The original scammer who claimed to be DC Martin was on the phone to the woman the whole time.
Detective Inspector Matt Phillips from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit said: "These are organised crime groups who work together and often target a location at a time, making thousands of phone calls until someone falls victim to it.
"They will sometimes know your name when they call, as there are databases online, but please don't let this trick you. They will often be polite and sound professional so they gain your trust - they are manipulative and very convincing.
"In some cases the fraudster also gives a collar number and asks you to ring 101 or 999 to check they are who they say they are, but this is just part of the scam as the caller leaves the phone line open and you just end up talking to someone else involved.
"They will also often tell the person they're trying to con not to tell anyone else about the call, including their own family or the bank. They will then arrange for a courier to come and collect the items - either cash, gift cards or other expensive items - at a location such as your home or place of work."