Telephone con
Conmen operate in many different guises. One scam that has recently been tried in the Merseyside area is to ring up elderly people to tell them that they have won some money.
The caller says that he is calling from Canada or America and you have won money on a foreign lottery or sweep stake. To claim your winnings of £150,000.00. or so, you should deposit £1,500.00 into an overseas bank account, via Western Union.
They will even give the address of the nearest Western Union office. This money is supposed to be to pay for the tax on the so-called winnings.
The conmen are very persistent in their attempts to persuade elderly and vulnerable people to comply with their requests, sometimes calling three and four times a day.
The callers remain completely anonymous as they withhold their number when making the call.
Elderly people should be made aware of the possibility of being telephoned by strangers, who tell them that they have won money in some foreign country.
Relatives of vulnerable people can arrange for calls to be blocked from callers who withhold their numbers.
Always report incidences of this sort to this office. It allows the police to build up a picture of the extent to which these people are operating.