Man dresses as fake postman to scam couple out of £350k

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news ... e-officer/

A couple from Salisbury lost hundreds of thousands of pounds after being contacted by a fraudster claiming to be a police officer.

On July 9, the couple were contacted at 10.30am by someone claiming to be a Metropolitan Police detective, saying they had arrested someone in possession of their bank cards in their names and they needed the couple's help to work undercover with police to catch the fraudster.

The victims were first instructed to purchase £100,000 worth of watches and then, when this failed, gold bullion which was delivered to the couples address on three separate occasions.

Someone dressed as a postman attended their address each day to collect the gold. The victims were promised that the money would be reimbursed by the government.

The fraudster offered the victims methods to ‘verify’ their identity, including getting the victim to call the police directly to confirm the details, but stayed on the line so the phone reconnected to them.

They also received additional calls, pretending to be from their bank, to legitimise the crime further. The total loss to the victims was a combined £350,000.

Acting detective Sergeant Ben Moore of Wiltshire Police’s complex fraud team said: “Fraud of this nature are extremely sophisticated and the perpetrators are very well practised in methods to get their victims to believe that they are indeed helping the police, preying on honest people’s trusting nature.

"I would reinforce to everyone who has been defrauded in this way that this is not your fault, you have been a victim of a serious crime and support is available to help you. Neither the police nor your bank will ever ask you to withdraw money or buy gold or other products to send to them.

"If you receive a call of this nature, hang up and then call the police or your bank using the number on the back of your bank card. Also, either try to use a different phone line to the one where you received the call or, if this is not possible, take a 5-minute break before making the call to ensure that the fraudster is not still hijacking your phone line.”

Courier fraud is an offence where the offender contacts the victim by phone and either arranges for a courier to attend their address to collect items or asks the victim to send the items through the post themselves.

This could either be cash or high-value items, or can be gift cards or even the victim’s bank cards themselves.

[TopperGas]

Why on earth would anybody use £100K of their own money on three separate occasions to try and help the police catch a thief, who had apparently only stolen their bank cards.

[NWpostie]

Its down to clever reverse psychology, salesmen do this all the time when selling double glazing, bogus investment product and FOMO tactics.

Still fraud in my opinion.

One salesman tried to persuade me to buy double glazing package for my house with £10,000 "interest free" loans over 10 years, I refused and kept knocking him back until he got the hint that I'm not buying, he wasn't happy that he's not getting his fat commission, a few years later got a more reputable local company to do it £3,500 after 3 different quotes and reputation check, I wouldn't be rushed or pressured.

Unfortunately the couple didn't take the time to stop, think it through and verify it with a real officer/detective.

[Mr Rush]

Why on earth would anybody use £100K of their own money on three separate occasions to try and help the police catch a thief, who had apparently only stolen their bank cards.

I've read it's like people who start to realise they're in a cult - kind of hard to extricate yourself without taking a knock to your ego for being such a fool.

[Wullie10]

It seems impossible this could happen. If you purchase over £5000 of gold within a 12 month period you have to inform the tax office. Bullion dealers need all sorts of ID checks. Banks would raise an alarm on the first purchase. All this would happen over weeks. And in the meantime they never mentioned it to another family member or friend. ? Amazing.