Elderly man falls victim to telephone scam

We want to re-iterate advice about scam callers, particularly to people with elderly or vulnerable relatives or friends, after a 90-year-old man was defrauded of his bank card details.

At around 9am on Friday, 11 October the elderly man answered the phone to a man who claimed to work for a company who could block nuisance and scam calls. The caller asked for card details and said there would be a one-off payment of £150 and any nuisance calls would stop within 30 days.

The victim reported that the caller already knew his name and address and would send on paperwork confirming the payment by post.

After telling his wife about the call, she reported it to us and was advised to contact her bank to cancel the card. Thankfully, no payments had been taken from the card.

PC Louise Rodger, who is a Vulnerable Fraud Investigation Officer, said:

“If you have elderly or vulnerable family members, neighbours or friends, please do speak with them about scam callers.

“This incident illustrates that scammers can be very sophisticated and may already hold personal details for those they target.

“The advice I’d like to share is: do not provide any bank details or other personal information over the phone to an unsolicited caller, no matter where they claim to be calling from.

“If you are concerned about unsolicited calls, you can sign up for the Telephone Preference Service online or by calling 08450700707 which is designed to reduce the number of scam calls that you receive. However, this method isn’t 100% fool proof so the advice above still applies.

“If you are concerned that you, or your friends or family members, have been a victim of this type of fraud please report it to us as soon as possible via one of the contact methods below.”

Please quote reference number 407 of 11 October in any correspondence.

• Facebook – send us a private message to /DerbyshireConstabulary
• Twitter – direct message our contact centre on @DerPolContact
• Website – complete the online contact form derbyshire.police.uk/Contact-Us.
• Phone – call us on 101.

You can also call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

Please note in the event of an emergency you should always call 999.