A MOFFAT woman was scammed out of £15,000 by cold callers on Monday.
The incident was included in a police report read aloud at an informal community meeting at the town hall on Tuesday night.
The woman was targeted by telephone scammers on June 23, claiming to be from her bank. They told her that there were fraudulent transactions on her account and that she needed to transfer her money to another account for security purposes, with new account details provided by the scammers.
Giving more detail about the incident, PC Glendinning said: “Thankfully the woman spoke to her bank the next day who confirmed that they hadn’t contacted her and she was the victim of a scam, and the bank reimbursed the money.
“This is a very well known scam that happens quite often and a lot of people have been caught out by it.
“These kind of scams are becoming an increasing part of our workload and it’s an increasingly frustrating one because investigative options are limited as the perpetrators are often overseas.
“But the more awareness people have of these scams, they can feel more confident in challenging them.”
Officers have agreed to give a scam awareness talk at Moffat’s next community council meeting in August.
However, the incident has sparked concern amongst community leaders as the closure of the town’s only bank is looming.
Community council secretary Mick Barker said: “Given the circumstances in Moffat and the closure of the bank in November. The community gets a service where people have someone to talk to and the ladies in the bank query about transactions to make sure people know where their money is going etc.
“If the bank closes that environment will not be there any more, that double check, in-person check, and I am quite concerned. When the bank closes the risk of exposure to scams in our community rises, particularly people who are not familiar with banking online, they are also going to become more exposed.”
