Elderly Salisbury couple scammed out of £350,000
They were contacted by someone claiming to be a police officer
An elderly couple from Salisbury have lost £350,000 in a courier fraud scam, prompting Wiltshire Police to offer advice to prevent further cases.
The victims were called by someone claiming to be a Met Police detective in July.
They were told a person had been arrested, and was in possession of bank cards in their names, so they needed the couple's help to 'catch a fraudster'.
The couple were asked to buy £100,000 worth of watches, and then when it failed, to buy gold bullion instead, which were delivered to their address on three separate occasions.
Each time, someone dressed as a postman collected the package and the victims were promised the Government would reimburse them.
The fraudster offered the victims ways to ‘verify’ their identity - including getting them to 'call the police directly', but instead the scammer stayed on the line so the phone reconnected to them.
They also received calls, pretending to be from their bank, to further legitimise the crime.
Acting Detective Sergeant Ben Moore of Wiltshire Police’s Complex Fraud Team said:
“Fraud of this nature are extremely sophisticated and the perpetrators are very well practised in methods to get their victims to believe that they are indeed helping the police, preying on honest people’s trusting nature.
"I would reinforce to everyone that has been defrauded in this way that this is not your fault, you have been a victim of a serious crime and support is available to help you. Neither the police, nor your bank will ever ask you to withdraw money or buy gold or other products to send to them.
"If you receive a call of this nature, hang up and then call the police or your bank using the number on the back of your bank card. Also, either try to use a different phone line to the one where you received the call or, if this is not possible, take a 5 minute break before making the call to ensure that the fraudster is not still hijacking your phone line.”
A courier fraud is an offence where the offender contacts the victim by phone and either arranges for a courier to attend their address to collect items or asks the victim to send the items through the post themselves.
This could either be cash or high value items, or can be gift cards or even the victim’s bank cards themselves.