Public targeted by bogus police officer in Telford fraud
A fraudster has been pretending to be a police officer to withdraw money from bank accounts in Telford.
West Mercia Police say there have been three reports this week of a man contacting members of the public claiming to be a police officer investigating fraud on their bank account.
The conman has been telling victims their bank account is at risk and in order to protect the account from fraudsters they need to withdraw their money.
The man then offers to send a courier to collect the money and bank cards from the victim.
In one case, the bogus official encouraged the victim to invest a large sum of money and that they would be served a High Court summons if they did not.
Police are now warning people in Telford to be on their guard for criminals claiming to be police officers.
Detective Sergeant Andy Dawson said: “Unfortunately, these fraudsters can be very convincing and give the victim no reason to believe they are not genuine.
"However, there is absolutely no circumstances where police would ask someone to withdraw their money from their bank account, and anyone receiving a call like this, or a call where it is the bank itself asking for the money withdrawn, should be aware this is scam.
“We’re carrying out enquiries to trace the fraudsters and would urge anyone who does receive a call to put the phone down straight away.
"There are occasions where the fraudster will not end the call completely so when you go to make another call it connects back to them so our advice would also be to ring someone whose voice you recognise to double check the call hasn’t been compromised.”
To report any suspicious activity relating to bogus officials, ring the police on 101, or actionfraud.police.uk to report a scam to the national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre.
