Telephone cheats con elderly victims in Littlehampton

Sussex Police is urging people not to fall foul of a new scam taking hold across the county.

PCSO Michelle Davies said cheats are calling vulnerable residents pretending to be the Ministry of Justice.

Victims are told they qualify for a refund on payment protection insurance (PPI) this will be a scam.

The scammer will ask that in order for the claim to be processed the victim will have to pay a percentage of your payout up front and that this should be in the form of UKASH vouchers.

They then send a courier to attend the home address of the victim and collect the vouchers or access the code for these vouchers in order to claim the money.

“These scammers may call you on more than on one occasion and be persuasive or persistent in their calls,” PCSO Davies said. “They may also suggest you call them back in order to ‘prove’ their identification.

“Please do not be taken in by these tactics.”

To date there have been three reports of this particular scam in Littlehampton, Bognor and Midhurst.

The force is urging anyone who receives these calls to contact them on 101 and report it to action fraud.

PCSO Davies added: “The members of the community who seem to have been targeted are the elderly. Please make sure that if you know of any elderly residents who may not receive messages through community messaging that you inform them to be vigilant of this particular type of scam.”