Police advise vigilance after attempted phone fraud

An elderly customer was almost scammed out of tens of thousands of pounds after falling victim to attempted phone fraud.

According to a neighbourhood alert, the incident happened in Ascot on Thursday (March15) at around 2.45pm.

Police are advising the vulnerable and elderly to be vigilant after they received a call from a manager of a bank.

The manager told the police they had just had one of their customers in the bank, attempting to transfer £25,000 to an external account.

As this was not typical expenditure, it flagged up and they spoke to the customer.

The customer was elderly, frightened, confused and was not too sure why the transfer was being made, nor to whom.

They then quickly left, without making the transfer, saying they would return with more details.

The police were called and went to the customer’s home.

When the police arrived, the customer was actually on the phone to the scammer, explaining why the transfer had not taken place.

The police took the phone and the man immediately hung up.

The scammer had claimed to be from the Bank's Fraud Department

The police phoned the bank who confirmed he was not known to them and confirmed it was a fraud call.

The customer was advised to put the phone down immediately if the man phoned again.

As the police were leaving, the phone rang again and the police heard the man asking if the police were still there.

Since the police attended, the victim has received further calls from the scammer.

The bank revealed that there have been several similar incidents over the last few weeks.

While full safeguarding advice was given in this case, police are advising people to put the phone down immediately if anyone gets a call purporting to be from a local bank.

If they are worried, they can call their bank using their own paperwork, to get a phone number and ask them if there is an issue.

If you know anyone who could be a potential victim of a scam call police are advising to talk to them about a BT Call Blocker phone.

It's an inexpensive service that will only accept calls from pre-entered numbers.

For more information visit https://www.productsandservices.bt.com/landline/calling-features/?s_cid=con_FURL_callprotect&s_intcid=con_intban_dmedia_content_cp2