OAP duped in £40,000 scam

A PENSIONER has been conned out of £40,000 by a man pretending to be a police officer.

The 85-year-old woman was told by the scammer that someone had tried to take money from her bank account and that she needed to transfer her funds to another account. He gave her the new account details, but they were for a bogus account.

The woman, from Heathhall in Dumfries, transferred £40,000 into the account.

Detective Sergeant Billy Thomson, of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, said: “This is a particularly despicable scam as it uses the trust that local people have in police to give credibility to their scam.”