Phone scam warning as Marlborough man loses almost £10,000

Wiltshire Police are warning residents of Marlborough to be vigilant after an elderly man was defrauded out of almost £10,000 in a phone scam.

Between Friday 1st October and Tuesday 5th October 2010, the victim, from Marlborough, was contacted twice by telephone by a man who said he worked for Natwest Bank.

The man claimed to be a courier who would be sent to the older man’s house and collect old credit cards in preparation for replacement cards being delivered.

At approximately 3pm on 5th October, a man arrived at the house and collected the cards as promised. It later transpired that the man did not work for Natwest and one of the cards had been used in three fraudulent transactions totaling almost £10,000.

The man who collected the cards is described as having short hair and stubble. He was wearing a white t-shirt and jeans and was possibly Eastern European.

PC Dawn Waterman said: “Our investigation has shown that Police in Surrey have also had similar incidents reported to them so we are trying to establish at this time whether they are linked.

However I would like to take this opportunity to warn members of the public not to engage with cold callers and not to give out any personal information, regardless of who the person says that they work for.

Genuine employees of organisations such as Banks or Building Societies would never call customers out of the blue asking for personal information and would not offer a service such as the one described in this case.

I am keen to speak to anyone who may have received similar calls or anyone who has been a victim of this scam. Often fraud victims do not report the crime because they somehow feel that it is their fault. However it’s important to remember that these people are cunning and persuasive and often prey on the most vulnerable members of our society. The more people report these crimes, the more likely it is that we will catch the offenders.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact PC Dawn Waterman at Devizes Police Station on 0845 408 7000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.