Warning after Suffolk man targeted by scam

SUFFOLK police have renewed warnings to people not to send money in response to unsolicited calls following reports of a scam involving people claiming to work for the Ministry of Justice.

Officers were contacted around 11.20am on Tuesday, by a man who said he had received a phone call the previous day from someone claiming to work for the Ministry. The caller told him he was owed more than �6,000 and gave his bank details, including the mans account number.

In order to claim the �6,000 the man was asked to organise two money transfers – totalling over �300 – and was given details of someone in India to transfer the cash to.

After transferring the payments the man became suspicious and rang what appeared to be a UK number he had been given by the original caller – a 0203 number. This was again answered by someone claiming to work for the Ministry but, still suspicious, the man decided to find the real number for the Ministry of Justice, called the genuine organisation and discovered it was all a scam.

Since then he has received further calls from those behind the fraud.

Suffolk police are urging anyone receiving such a call not to send cash. “There are a number of methods used to try to get you to part with money but if anything involves sending cash to claim a larger sum of money it is more than likely to be a scam,” a force spokesman said.