Officers are warning people across Greater Manchester to be aware of telephone scams after police received four calls within two hours.
The first incident happened between 12.50pm and 1.10pm on 1 April 2015, when a man claiming to be DC Adam Green from Oldham police station called a woman who was at home in Worsley.
He said he had two men in custody on suspicion of fraud and that they had taken £800 from her bank account.
He said he needed her to attend the bank and withdraw £6,200 as they could take fingerprints from the notes and use as evidence because he expected someone from her bank was involved.
She said she wanted to speak to the bank before taking any action and no money was given to the offender.
At about 1pm on 1 April 2015, a man claiming to be police officer from Oldham called a woman at her home in Bolton and made the same claim. The woman refused to hand over her details and put the phone down.
Between 1.35pm and 1.45pm on 1 April 2015, a man who again claiming to be a police officer in Oldham called a woman at home in Little Hulton. He said he was going to go to her house to do a search and said if she had money at home they would need to take for evidence.
She refused to give him any money or further details and put the phone down.
Between 2pm and 2.15pm on 1 April 2015, a man once again claiming to be a police officer from Oldham called a woman in Farnworth and went through the same scam, but told the woman he was going to her house to do a house search.
The man then passed the woman onto another woman who claimed to be from her bank, the victim said she was not from the bank and put the phone down.
Police Constable Andrew Butcher from GMP’s Economic Crime Unit: “Luckily on each of these occasions the women who received the calls did not believe the man at the end of the line and refused to hand over any money or their card details.
“However this is not always the case, individuals, often the elderly or vulnerable, are targets of these scams whereby they are telephoned by an offender who poses as a Police Officer and tells them their accounts or bank cards have been compromised.
“They are then deceived into providing their PINs and a courier attends their address to collect their cards which are then used for multiple fraudulent transactions.
“There have been numerous incidents across Greater Manchester over the last year and we would urge everyone to be vigilant and those with elderly and vulnerable friends and relatives to be made aware of this type of crime.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.
