Scone woman issues scam warning

A pensioner wants to warn residents across Perth and Kinross - after she was nearly hit by a scam phone call.

The woman from Scone - who did not wish to be named - said she was called on Saturday, March 10 by someone using a local dialling code. As it appeared to be a local number, the woman said she trusted the person on the other end of the line.

However, she said she got suspicious when the man who had called asked for her debit card number, and she hung up and immediately informed the police as she suspected it was a scam phone call.

She explained:“On Saturday morning I got a phone call and it turned up as a local Scone number, so I thought‘fair enough’. I picked it up and it was a foreign guy on the other end of the phone and he said he was from the Telephone Preference Service.

“He asked me questions like: do I know my phone number? Do I live on my own? Am I older? then he said,‘I need your debit card number’. I said I do not give that out to anyone, and he claimed the bank had given it to him already, so I just put the telephone down.”

However, the woman remained concerned and tried to call the number back the following day, only to be put through to a fellow elderly Scone resident, who was oblivious to the scam phone calls apparently coming from her landline number.

The woman continued:“When I phoned the number back it was an elderly lady from Scone. She had received the same calls 44 times on Saturday, and she gave up answering because she was so frightened, because she had been done by a scam before.

“I don’t understand how they got a hold of her number and how they were able to use her number. As soon as you see a local number you answer the phone and answer their questions. If it had been an international number I would have ignored it.

“There is a lot of older people here who might not know not to give out their debit card number.”

A spokesperson for Police Scotland’s Tayside division has now called on elderly and vulnerable residents in Perth and Kinross to be wary of the different phone scams which are going around the area.

The spokesperson said: “Scammers are contacting victims, usually elderly or vulnerable people, by telephone and asking them to make payments over the phone for various things.

“No genuine company or government department would ever make such a request, and any call of this nature is a scam.

“Also, can we ask that if you are the carer for someone who is vulnerable, please try and keep track of any actions they take regarding this type of scam, as those calling can be very convincing.”