Alert over kidnap scam

A pensioner has urged people across the northeast to be vigilant afterbeing targeted by fraudsters – who claimed they had kidnapped his dead wife.

The bungling hoaxers called retired dentist Ronald Sim earlier this month, and told him they were holding his wife Anne hostage.

But the 71- year- old quickly put an end to the call, by pointing out that his wife had been dead for nine years.

Last night, however, Mr Sim admitted he could easily have fallen for the scam if they had told him they were holding his son captive, as he was away in Germany at the time.

And he urged people across the north-east to be vigilant.

“I’m onmy own here,” Mr Sim, of Cornhill, near Banff.

“The phone rang and this voice from the Indian sub-continent said ‘ is this Mr Sim, am I speaking to Mr Sim?’ and ‘we’ve kidnapped your wife’.

“Of course, I right away knew it was a scam. To my regret, I now wish I had kept the conversation going to find out what they were going to ask for. But I said, ‘It must have been pretty hard for you, because she died nine years ago’.

“The phone then went dead.”

Mr Sim has since reported the incident to police.

A police spokesman said: “We would remind the public to always be on their guard of suspicious callers.”

Ronald Sim