Officers are issuing a warning to members of the public following a series of reports of scam calls in North Dorset.
A number of reports were received of calls made to members of the public – mostly in the Shaftesbury area – on Thursday 20 August and Friday 21 August 2020 purporting to be from Dorset Police or other police forces and the intended victims were asked to make cash withdrawals.
Sergeant James Francis, of North Dorset police, said: “While in most cases those targeted have realised this could potentially be a scam and have alerted us, there have been cases where money has been handed over to these fraudsters.
“Dorset Police or any other force will not cold call people and ask them to make withdrawals in this way. We would urge anyone with doubts about the validity of a caller to take steps to verify their legitimacy and ring them back via an official, publically available number, which for Dorset Police would be 101.
“Never give personal information such as bank details out over the phone.
“The offenders do appear to be targeting elderly residents and we would ask people to look out for elderly family members or neighbours and make sure they are aware of this potential scam.”
Anyone who believes they have been targeted by scammers is asked to report it to Dorset Police at www.dorset.police.uk, via email [email protected] or by calling 101.
