A warning has been issued over a ‘sophisticated’ telephone bank scam which saw an East Lothian man lose almost £58,000.
Scammers claimed to be a legitimate employee from the man’s bank and told the victim that there was fraudulent activity on his account.
The con artist asked the 57-year-old if he would assist Police Scotland in an internal investigation and even provided phone numbers which appeared to belong to the force.
After carrying out a number of checks, the victim transferred the funds before later realising he had been scammed.
Detective Constable Garry Mauran said: “This was a very sophisticated scam.
“The man genuinely thought he was assisting the bank and the police frauds department and made genuine efforts to check this was legitimate before taking action.
“I would like to remind the public, if fraud has been committed on your account, banks will never contact you directly and ask you to transfer money to another account.
“If they do hang up immediately.
“You shouldn’t feel pressured into taking action and transferring money, a genuine caller will understand if you want to make the relevant checks.
“If anyone is in any way suspicious I would ask them to get in touch with their bank.”
If you have any concerns surrounding fraudulent activity, or feel you may have been scammed, please contact police on 101.
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