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Scammers net £34k in Gretna sting

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By Fiona Reid
Annan and Eskdale
Scammers net £34k in Gretna sting

A TELEPHONE scam has left a Gretna resident a massive £34,000 out of pocket.

And it comes as police discover that a telephone scam targeted at someone in the west of the region resulted in a loss of money perhaps reaching into six figures.
Raising a warning in Gretna and the wider area, Sgt Steven Wilson of Annan Police Station said: “A local resident has fallen victim to a version of the banking telephone scam, and fell for the fraud which resulted in tens of thousands of pounds being stolen from his bank account.”
Urging people not to fall for such scams, Sgt Wilson added: “This has been widely reported before, and we continually stress time and time again not to entertain anybody cold calling you, purporting to be from your bank and asking you to transfer funds from one account to another.
“Your bank will not do this, and it will always be a fraud.
“If you go along with it, you could lose your life savings.”
Police Scotland say they have also identified another scam victim in the Whithorn area, making two in one week.
In this second case, the victim had been defrauded as a result of numerous transactions over a period of five years \_ losing his life savings.