Police have urged pensioners to be vigilant after a spate of courier frauds in the east and south of the UK, including one case where a victim lost £5.3mn.
Reports to Action Fraud, the national fraud and cybercrime reporting service, showed members of the public have been contacted by criminals pretending to be either from the police or from their bank.
These criminals have claimed the victim’s account has been taken over by fraudsters and the victim has then been coerced to transfer money and/or buy gold bullion and jewellery to aid an investigation.
This is often with the criminal posing as a courier to collect these valuable items from the victim’s address - this type of crime is known as courier fraud.
In some cases, criminals have even visited the victim’s home, posing as police officers to collect money, jewellery and bank cards.
City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud, saw one report from a victim in Essex who lost £5.3mn and another victim in Cambridgeshire lost over £1.9mn.
Detective Sergeant Victoria O’Keefe, from the Lead Force Operations Room at the City of London Police, said: “The victims of this crime are losing significant amounts of money and on some occasions, it amounts to their life savings.
“In many of the recent reported cases, the victims are being encouraged to purchase gold bullion, but may not ask to look at it, have no interest in the item or are not able to give a satisfactory reason for the purchase.
“They may also appear slightly evasive, nervous and will want to buy the item and leave as soon as possible.”
O’Keefe urged jewellers or gold dealers to look out for the signs of courier fraud.
She said the victims in these crimes are often told to give cover stories on why they are purchasing the item, and they believe what they are doing is legitimate.
“Another tell-tale sign is that the victim may be on the phone to someone whilst they make the purchase,” she said.
“If any members of the public hear of any friends and family being contacted out of the blue by the police or their bank to make purchases on their behalf, call the police and report it immediately.”
In the past three months, more than £19.6mn has been lost to courier fraud, with high value gold bullion cases reported in Wiltshire, Thames Valley, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.
In all cases, the victims were between 75 and 91 years of age.
Last year (November 30), a 91 year old woman from the Marlborough area tried to withdraw £50,000 from her bank following a phone call claiming to be from London Police.
Fortunately, this transaction was blocked by the bank, and her son encouraged her to report the incident.
Cheryl Hurren, complex fraud team manager at Wiltshire Police, said: “Courier frauds are of great concern to Wiltshire Police and we take this type of fraud very seriously.
“We are aware that fraudsters use many devious tactics to coerce victims and we have been working closely with our local communities and Wiltshire jewellers to raise awareness of the dangers of this type of offence.”
The police said one way to block nuisance phone calls is to install a device called a call blocker unit.
Call blockers filter unwanted scam and nuisance calls and stop them from getting through to the person’s landline.
The devices allow calls from a trusted caller list set by the user for friends, family members, doctors and any other trusted contacts.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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