A woman has been defrauded of over £20,000 by criminals impersonating officers from the fraud department of Gloucestershire Police.
Gloucestershire Police issued a warning last month after receiving reports from other forces about fraudsters posing as officers from their constabulary. These scammers use spoofed phone numbers that appear to originate from police stations in Hester’s Way, Cheltenham, or Bearlands in Gloucester when searched online.
The fraudsters provide a fake collar number and claim that a suspect has been arrested who stored victims’ documents, such as passports, on a laptop. They then request the victim’s passport number.
Police revealed that in this case, the victim was kept on the phone for seven hours one day and nine hours another, with the scammers persistently persuading her to hand over substantial sums of money.
Officers said these manipulative fraudsters often instruct victims not to disclose their involvement in the so-called investigation to friends or family.
Gloucestershire Police urge people to alert elderly or vulnerable relatives and friends to these scams. They also emphasise that genuine police officers will always clearly identify themselves during phone calls and will never request personal information or payment over the phone.