Chiswick Elderly Victims Of Fraud

Conned by callers pretending to be bank staff

Police have warned people to beware of fraudsters who have conned elderly people in Chiswick out of their bank details recently.

The scam is targeting elderly bank customers who receive unsolicited telephone calls from individuals purporting to be from the police or their bank. These individuals obtain the card details from their victims and inform them that their card needs to be collected by a courier.

The bank cards are then used fraudulently without the victim’s knowledge.
A number of incidents are being investigated by the Met Police’s Operation Sterling with its partners at the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Card Fraud.

One elderly Chiswick man was taken in by a caller who claimed to be from the Halifax Bank. The caller phoned on the evening of April 2nd, and said that fraud had been detected on the man's account.

The male caller then asked the victim to verify his pin number for both his Halifax and Barclaycard, which he did.  

Upon giving his pin number, the person on the phone stated that he was sending someone round to collect the bank-cards.  Around ten minutes later there was a knock on the door and a male with long dark hair was there with ID claiming to be from the bank.  The victim believed this and handed over the bank cards.

Over the next few days a total of £600 was taken from the victim’s account, according to the police.

Councillor Gary Malcolm (Lib Dem) said he had been told by the Safer Neighbourhood Police that fraudsters were also targeting elderly people in Ealing as well as Chiswick. The advice to people if they do receive such a call is to end it immediately and remember the following:

• Your bank will never attend your home
• Your bank and the police will never collect your bank card
• Your bank and the police will never ask for your PIN
• If you have already given your bank card or disclosed your PIN you should call the police non emergency number 101.

April 23, 2012