Man conned out of £500 online

Police are warning the public about an iTunes scam after a Cowdenbeath man was conned out of £500.

The man recently received messages over Facebook, from the profiles of people he knew, encouraging him to purchase £500 of iTunes vouchers and send photographs of the serial numbers by private message to a fake charity page with the promise of a £95,000 reward.

He was told by the scam merchants that the charity was to help people in financial need.

But on sending the details of the iTunes vouchers purchased, the Facebook profiles and messaging activity disappeared and his personal Facebook account became inaccessible.

Inspector Gavin Cameron from Cowdenbeath Police Station said: “I would urge the public to be alert to these types of scams as the criminals can be very convincing. Official organisations will never ask for payment in iTunes vouchers.

“I would ask that businesses are equally vigilant to people purchasing large sums of iTunes vouchers, and not to be afraid to query the customer on their purchase.

“The public should be wary of contact from Facebook profiles known to them which is out of the blue, offering generous pay-outs in cash. If it sounds too good to be true, then it likely is.

“I would also personally ask that people make friends and relatives aware of these sorts of scams, and be wary that these criminals often target the elderly and vulnerable.”