Police in West Lothian are issuing a security warning after an elderly woman was defrauded of a significant sum of money on Friday, 25 July. The victim received a phone call from a man stating he was from Bank of Scotland and informing her that her account was under attack. He told her he would have to close the account and transfer her funds to a new account which had been set up. The caller appeared to have specialist knowledge of her account which gave the impression it was genuine. The victim transferred money to the account number that was given, but later discovered that this had been a fraudulent call. A Police Scotland spokesperson said: we have received a number of reports of similar scams which can be very convincing. It has resulted in people losing large sums of money through this fraudulent activity. Victims tend to be elderly or vulnerable so we are asking people to be wary of anyone who calls claiming to be from their bank. Always check with your branch if you receive such a phone call.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 07:40:10 +0000