PEOPLE in Tenbury and the Teme Valley are being warned about opportunist fraudsters after an 82-year-old woman from the county fell victim to a cruel scam.

A woman took a call from a man who said he was from the Scotland Yard fraud squad and told her that her bank account had been compromised.

The woman did ask if it was a scam but the man managed to convince her that it was genuine so she gave him information about her account including how much money she had in it.

He told the woman to go to her bank, remove an amount of money and put it in a brown paper bag with her bank card which would be collected by a courier. He gave the woman a reference number.

Shortly afterwards a man, believed to have been in his early twenties and wearing a black hooded top, arrived to collect the money and quoted the reference number.

This was repeated over the next five days and the woman continued to hand over money.

When she went to the bank for a loan, however, bank staff questioned her and the fraud came to light.

In another incident a woman from handed over cash and her mobile phone to fraudsters after a phone call from someone claiming to be a police officer from London.

This was one a series of incidents of fraud throughout the county reported on the same day.

West Mercia Police continues to investigate these offences under Operation Ardent and is working with banks to ensure that elderly and vulnerable people are not withdrawing their life savings and handing them over to fraudsters.

Police say that they would never ask for a PIN number and neither would a bank. The advice is also never to transfer money to someone who is not known or be pressured into withdrawing money.

Anyone who is suspicious of fraud should call 101