Heartless fraudsters con elderly couple out of '˜substantial amount of money'

Police have urged local residents to be wary of scams after fraudsters conned an elderly Lisburn couple out of a 'substantial amount of money.'

The couple, thought to be aged in their 80s, were contacted in recent days by someone claiming to be from Danske Bank.

The fraudster convinced them to give out their bank details and a sizeable sum of money was subsequently removed from their account.

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“The suspects called the injured party claiming to be from Danske Bank and asked for their bank details,” a post on the PSNI Lisburn Facebook page said.

“A bank will not ring you and ask for your account details, so please don’t give that information over the phone. If you have doubts about a caller please get in touch with your bank before providing any details to anyone.

“If you feel that you have been a victim of this scam please get in touch with detectives at Lisburn on 101. Remember, if you can spot a scam you can stop a scam.”

Condemning the incident, which was reported to officers on Monday, February 19, local UUP councillor and Policing and Community Safety Partnership member Alexander Redpath said: “I am deeply concerned that an elderly couple have been targeted in this way. I wish the PSNI well with their investigations. It’s unfortunate that owing to the international nature of this sort of crime that it’s very difficult to bring people to justice.

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“As a solicitor in private practice I am particularly aware of the dangers of this sort of crime as my sector is regularly targeted. I would urge residents not to hand out sensitive financial information over the phone. If anyone calls claiming to be from a trusted provider I would recommend double checking that the call is genuine.

“There is very good information publicly available from the PSNI and other sources on how to protect yourself from this sort of fraud and I would strongly recommend that anyone concerned takes advantage of this resource.”

For more information about scams and how to spot them log on to www.psni.police.uk/crime/fraud/scamwise-ni