A Dunblane pensioner has been left £240,000 out of pocket after being targeted by despicable scammers.
The 71-year-old man was contacted by con artists claiming to have been from the Bank of Scotland over a four-day period last month.
Brazen crooks called the man at his home in the town on multiple occasions between Monday, October 25, and Friday, October 29, in which they convinced him to share his account details.
Large sums of money in the account were removed. Bank of Scotland’s fraud department stepped in but by this point around £240,000 had already been taken.
Police have since been called in to investigate.
Inspector Liam Harman, of Stirling police office, said: “I’d urge anyone who receives any form of suspicious contact from their bank, either by email or phone to contact their bank to confirm the authenticity.
“Scammers will say anything to gain your trust, they may call you by name, tell you they are from your bank’s fraud team, tell you there is a problem with your account, that you owe money or may even say they need help catching criminals.”
A spokesman from Bank of Scotland said they were unable to comment.
Age Scotland is a registered charity for older people. Following the latest scam, chief executive, Brian Sloan said: “We hope the police are able to apprehend and prosecute those responsible for this heartless crime.
“Scams like this have a devastating effect on someone’s life and the people behind them are relentless and unforgivably cruel in their attempts to trick people out of their money.
“Scam attempts are rife and getting more and more sophisticated, making them increasingly difficult to spot and falling victim can have a huge emotional impact as well as a severe financial one.
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“Our most recent research revealed that a massive 87 percent of over-50s said they or someone they know has been the target of a scam, with telephone scams accounting for 71 per cent of those reported.”
The scam is just the latest in a string of cold-hearted scams across Stirling.
In June this year, we told how an elderly Dunblane woman was conned out of £75,000.
The 72-year-old fell victim to the con artist the previous month who pretended to be a representative from the woman’s bank. The woman was contacted via telephone by an unidentified fraudster claiming to be representing the bank. She was duped into transferring the large sums of money into an account.
In October 2019, an elderly Dunblane woman was swindled out of more than £1700 after being duped in a social media con in which a scammer posed as a relative.
In April 2019, a Causewayhead pensioner lost her life savings after a con artist swindled her out of a five-figure sum. The 77-year-old woman was defrauded of £19,000. A caller claiming to be from BT contacted the woman and requested a payment and then used her card details to siphon cash from her account.
And in August 2018, an 88-year-old Callander man was scammed out of up to £4000 after being targeted by suspected Nigerian fraudsters.
