Shameless criminals are using a sophisticated courier scheme to scam North East pensioners out of thousands of pounds.
Crime groups posing as police officers and bank officials cold call elderly people saying they are due or owe money, then ask the victim to withdraw cash or purchase gift vouchers that'll be collected by a courier.
More than 1,630 landlines in Durham , Sunderland and Newcastle were called within the space of one month by a group hoping to extract money from those who answered.
Following an investigation, Northumbria Police found 12 victims sent out cash and goods totalling Elderly man defrauded out of more than £5,000 by scammers pretending to be from the police
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Now, the force and pensioner Edward Gibson, 80, who was contacted by scammers, are warning people to stay vigilant.
The Sunderland pensioner was told he was due thousands of pounds from overpaid bank charges - but would need to pay a solicitor's fee through gift vouchers.
He said: "I got a phone call at half 12 to say that he was from the Government department and I was due some money from a bank refund.
"It was overpaid bank charges over the last 20 years so I thought straight away there was a rabbit hole.
"Banks and Government don't cold call either, they send a letter round but not cold call.
"They put me right on my guard. I was on my guard at the beginning but it made me doubly on my guard for future.
"I was due for these bank charges and I was going to get a phone call the following day telling us how much I was due and what I would be paid.
"Whoever rang the next day would ask why I'm getting the refund.
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"The following day I got the phone call and sure enough they asked why I was getting the refund, said what I had to say and that was it.
"They would get someone out. They told us how much I was due - £3,600.
"All I had to pay was £200 solicitors fees and I would be getting a phone call the next day telling me how I would be getting it."
The next day, Edward received a phone call telling him to purchase four gift vouchers worth £50 each and someone would collect them from his home.
He said: "I had enough savvy to say there would be no-one in and my wife and myself would be going out until 4pm.
"That gave me a chance to get in touch with my family and see where we went from there, which sure enough my daughter said she was going to inform the police.
"Within minutes officers were at my door and officers were in my house."
Again, Edward received a phone call asking if he'd purchased the cards but said no and the fraudsters never appeared at his door.
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Later that week, the former miner received another call - this time a different voice - for the exact same scam.
Edward said he was happy he hadn't given them his personal details.
He said: "When I come off the phone there was four officers in my house, two daughters, my wife.
"It's sad to think these old dears who have no family, or no back up, and they keep them in conversation for friendship just for happiness. How much information they divulge, I dread to think."
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Edward's story comes after an elderly man in Jesmond was contacted and handed over £5,200 to fraudsters.
Superintendent Mick Paterson said there has been an increase in courier fraud in recent months that targets the vulnerable.
He added: "The reassurance for people to know. It is a sophisticated form of fraud but we are even more sophisticated in the police in terms of tracking these people down.
"There are a number of people going through the court process at the moment."
There are a number of things families, neighbours and shopkeepers can do to protect the elderly.
Supt Paterson said: "Speak to grandparents and elderly neighbours, have they been receiving strange phone calls and reassure them that the police and Government, Inland Revenue, Post Office, never do cold calls.
"The other thing shopkeepers can do. If they notice unusual activity, somebody buying a large amount of vouchers, that is often a trigger that someone has been a victim of this sort of offence.
"We work with the banking industry so people need to be reassured if they withdraw money, that becomes a trigger for us to become involved.
"If you receive a cold call and somebody wants you to engage in some sort of activity is to just not partake. Put the phone down."
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