A MAN has been arrested in connection with a telephone scam which saw a Southam pensioner defrauded out of £25,000.
The incident happened on September 5 last year when the victim – a man in his 70s from – received a call from someone claiming to be from BT.
The caller had the victim’s account details including the amount of his last bill and seemed genuine.
The fraudster said there was a problem with his internet and that it had been accessed illegally.
The victim was told to download a piece of software onto his computer, allowing remote access to his computer, before he was shown that his Amazon account had been hacked with an item added into his basket.
The scammer then claimed that his bank account had been hacked with a payment being made from it.
He asked the victim to transfer £25,000 to a new account to help catch the ‘fraudster’, which he did.
At this point, the victim realised it was a scam and contacted his bank who were fortunately able to recover some of the money.
The victim was able to provide information that helped to identify the suspect as a 36-year-old man from Wolverhampton who was arrested on suspicion of fraud when he was due to fly out of East Midlands Airport at the weekend.
Detective Constable Stuart Clasper from Warwickshire Police Economic Crime Unit said: “This was extremely upsetting for the victim who lost a significant amount of money.
“It’s also an example of how convincing these despicable fraudsters can be and how they will utilise technology to gain remote access to peoples devices.
“Its important people are alert to these types of offences. A company will never contact you out of the blue and ask you to move money to a different account. If they do, it is scam; hang up and report it immediately.
“In this case the caller put the victim under pressure to follow his instructions. This is another sign of a scam. A genuine company will never put you under pressure in this way and won’t mind if you want to carry out check to ensure a call is genuine.”