Two women from the Harrogate district have lost a combined £500,000 after scammers persuaded them to buy gold bullion.
The scammers, who claimed to be from the police, told the victims they were monitoring fraudulent activity on their accounts.
The women were told they must work with the police to catch the fraudsters and, as part of this, were advised to move money out of their bank accounts and buy gold bullion instead.
The bullion, which is another term for gold bars, was then collected by a fake courier who promised to keep it safe until the police investigation had concluded.
North Yorkshire Police, which was alerted to the scam last week, said these type of scam stories have become “very common” recently.
Andy Fox, the force’s financial abuse safeguarding officer, said:
“You can sit and think ‘why would they hand over all that money?’ but the scammers are very good at what they do. They pretended to be police so the victims trusted them, you could call it brainwashing.
“I have spoken to the victims and they are very upset. We just have to keep giving advice to ensure these scammers can’t continue.”
Mr Fox said the police were alerted to the crimes when the victims got in touch to ask for the officer they had been speaking to. Once the pair ran out of money the perpetrator stopped calling.
Mr Fox said a detective was investigating various leads associated with the case.
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Fraud victims don’t get their money back unless the bank reimburses it or the police find the culprit and use their assets to pay back victims.
North Yorkshire Police said in a statement:
“Please remember, the police or your bank will NEVER contact you and ask you to move or transfer money. We will never ask you to lie to your bank or your family and we will certainly never ask you to purchase gold bullion.
“If you receive a call like this, hang up immediately. If you are ever worried about any calls you receive speak to a family member, friend, your bank or ring the police.”
If you think you have been a victim of fraud call North Yorkshire Police on 101.
