Vulnerable and elderly targeted in slew of phone scams
then demanded payment.
Kitchingman, who suffers multiple sclerosis, was intimidated and gave him her credit card number, driver’s licence details and email address.
‘‘I don’t know why, I felt so uncomfortable the whole time.
‘‘I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through,’’ she said.
The cash was stolen from her credit card and is believed to have been transferred by Western Union to China.
Spark spokeswoman Lucy Fullarton said she was aware of one or two similar complaints in the past few days, but there could be others. ‘‘It’s entirely possible scammers are pretending to be Spark again.
‘‘We will never call customers completely out of the blue,’’ she said.
Fullarton said Spark would investigate.
Like Kitchingman, Helen Nathan and her husband received a call from somebody called Roger.
He claimed to be a colleague of their doctor’s, soliciting money for arthritis medication about 8.15pm on Wednesday.
Asking for the couple’s credit card details the caller became angry when Nathan’s husband said they didn’t have credit cards.
‘‘Even if we did, I wouldn’t have given my number,’’ she said.
Her husband hung up. The couple became ‘‘a bit concerned’’, so went to the police.
Manawatu police Senior Sergeant Ashley Gurney was not aware of other incidents in the region of people impersonating Spark employees.
‘‘These sorts of scams go around reasonably frequently, unfortunately.
‘‘Scams tend to come and go, but the premise is the same,’’ he said.
Gurney advised people not to give out their bank account details or passwords in such circum- stances. ‘‘If people have been taken advantage of by this scam then they should report it,’’ he said.
Last weekend a member of the public notified hospital staff they had received calls soliciting donations, asking for credit card details.
MidCentral Health was made aware of the claims when the duty nurse manager called the police in the weekend.
Specialist community and regional services operations director Nicholas Glubb said MidCentral was only aware of one case.
He said the DHB did not solicit donations over the phone.