Three ‘vulnerable’ East Lancashire victims hand over large sums of money in courier fraud scam

The first scam occurred in Accrington when two victims in their 80s received a call from someone pretending to be a police officer on October 3.

The fraudster claimed he was working on a counterfeit money investigation and that the victims needed to withdraw cash.

They added that the victims should tell the bank that the money was for house renovations.

After the cash was collected by the scammers, the victims received further calls telling them to exchange more cash for euros.

This was also collected.

The second incident occurred in Wilpshire when another vulnerable victim was called by people claiming to be police officers on October 9.

The fraudsters said they were called DC 5129 Martin Rose and Sergeant Bullard, but Lancashire Police said they do not have officers with those names.

The fake police officers claimed their card was being used in an attempt to buy euros, and that they needed to withdraw a large sum of money for a courier to collect.

After this was collected, the victim received another call instructing them to withdraw and change another large sum of money – this was also taken.

The victim then received a final instruction to move a large sum from their savings to their current account.

The most recent incident occurred when a victim received calls from someone claiming to be a police officer on Tuesday (October 10).

The fraudster said he was called DC 5244 Brian Gosling from Hutton Fraud Team – Lancashire Police do not have any officers by that name.

The victim was instructed to withdraw a large sum of money from the bank before handing it over to a courier.

A further request was also made to change a large amount of cash into euros which would be collected by a courier.

They were later called again and asked to bring high value items to a meeting point.

DC Thomas Farrell, of East CID, said: “We want to highlight these cases to show how detrimental they can be to the victims, who lose their hard-earned money to fraudsters who have concocted sophisticated stories to con their victims into believing them.

“We are working as hard as we can to ensure that we find these despicable and heartless fraudsters and put them before the courts.

“We want to remind you that the police, or your bank will never call you to ask you to withdraw money for any reason, including in connection with an investigation.

“Please let everyone know about these scams, especially any vulnerable people, including elderly relatives or neighbours, to ensure that they don’t become these scammers’ next victims.”

If you suspect that you, or someone you know may be a victim of Courier Fraud, call police on 101 or Action Fraud on 0300 1232040.