Police issue warning following bogus phone calls

In each of the cases the victims received a telephone call from a man claiming to be an officer from the Metropolitan Police.

The man told the victims their bank accounts had been cloned and told that they needed to transfer their money to another account urgently. The man then went on to give the victims the details of a ‘safe’ account to which they needed to transfer all of their money.

Once the money had been transferred to the safe account, it was then moved to other accounts before being withdrawn.

Detective Sergeant Darren Wright from Cheshire Police said: “In recent days there has been a total of seven incidents reported across the Warrington area in which the victims have been contacted by a man claiming to be from the Metropolitan Police.

“Correctly, the majority of people identified this as a scam and refuse to part, unfortunately some have fallen victim to this scam and subsequently had thousands of pounds stolen from their accounts.

“I would like to warn all residents that the police would never call victims and ask for money to be transferred into another account.”

All of the cases are currently being investigated by Action Fraud. Anyone with information in relation to the incidents, or anyone who believes that they may have been a victim is urged to contract Cheshire Police on 101 or Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

Alternatively information can be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.