AN OPERATION has been launched by West Mercia Police aimed at protecting older and vulnerable people following an increase in telephone frauds in the force area.
Project Prospero works in conjunction with Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.
Fraudsters have been calling older and vulnerable people, claiming to be a police officer investigating corrupt bank staff or a bank investigating its own staff.
They tell the victim their account has been subject to a fraud and they need to ‘co-operate’ as part of the investigation.
The victim will then be asked to withdraw funds to hand them over to ‘investigators’ via a remote means or in person.
Alternatively, victims are asked to hand over bank cards, vouchers or other valuable items or transfer funds to a different account which is, in fact, controlled by the fraudsters.
There have been three incidents in Worcester and Malvern.
In the first a man in his 70s was called by another man claiming to be from the Fraud Squad in London.
He was asked to withdraw a quantity of cash so a courier could collect the money for investigation.
The victim withdrew the money and a courier attended to collect it shortly afterwards.
The second incident saw a couple in their 80s receive a call from a man claiming to be a police officer from London.
They were told there had been fraudulent activity on their account and were asked to give over their bank details as well as withdrawing a quantity of cash. A male courier then attended the address and the money was handed over.
And an Upton resident received a call from someone claiming to be from HMRC who told them they owed tax from 25 years ago. They were then told to pay immediately on a bank pay safe card or further action would be taken.
The call came from telephone number 0049600 3718 341.
Anyone receiving a scam call should hang up and not provide personal details or hand anything over. They should report it to www.actionfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040.
