Elderly couple from Salisbury defrauded out of £350,000 in courier fraud

A couple from Salisbury have been defrauded out of £350,000 after being contacted by someone who claimed to be a police officer.

The couple were called on July 9th at 10:30 am by someone claiming to be a Metropolitan Police Detective, saying they had arrested someone in possession bank cards in their names and they needed the couple's help to work undercover with police to catch the fraudster.

The victims were instructed to purchase first £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 further legitimise the crime. 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 that 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.”

A 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.

Further advice and support can be found on the Wiltshire Police website: Door-to-door and courier fraud | Wiltshire Police or by visiting either https://actionfraud.police.uk or https://takefive-stopfraud.org.uk.