Warning after conmen target Shropshire shops
Scammers have targeted shops in two towns in south Shropshire, police have said.
Officers are warning businesses that suspected conmen have targeted several shops in both Craven Arms and Bishop's Castle in recent weeks, but they are not believed to have been successful so far.
Known as "ringing the changes", the scam involves asking a shop assistant to change notes in the till and then trying to confuse them into give out more than they have been handed.
A spokesman for Bishop's Castle and Craven Arms safer neighbourhood team said: "There was an attempt at a 'ringing the changes' scam in some of Bishop's Castle's shops last week.
"This follows on from similar reports in Craven Arms a few weeks ago.
"The type of fraud involves someone asking for a sum of cash to be changed into notes of a smaller denomination.
"While doing this they deliberately confuse staff so as to obtain more money than they originally handed over.
"Both suspects are male, aged late 20s to early 30s, and described as eastern European. They were seen to get into a red Mk1 Ford Focus.
"Thankfully on this occasion staff refused to change the notes and the scammers were unsuccessful.
"We would advise all businesses to be aware and report any incidents to police on 101."
