Post office staff praised after stopping Alcester pensioner becoming iTunes scam victim - The Stratford Observer

Post office staff praised after stopping Alcester pensioner becoming iTunes scam victim

Stratford Editorial 18th Jun, 2016 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

ALERT post office staff have been praised after they stopped an Alcester pensioner becoming another iTunes scam victim.

The targeted victim was called by a man claiming to be from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

He was told to buy £4,000 worth of iTunes vouchers to settle a tax bill and – thinking the request was genuine – went straight to Alcester Post Office.

But when he asked for the vouchers, staff realised he was potentially being scammed and called Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.




No money or private details were exchanged with the man.

Police praised the staff for their quick-thinking, which they say prevented the man from losing thousands of pounds.


It comes just weeks after fraudsters conned a Stratford woman out of £11,400.

The woman, who is in her 60s, was called by a man also claiming to be from Inland Revenue, saying she owed £10,000 after failing to complete her tax return.

He told her to pay the money back within 24 hours or the police would come to her house and seize her car.

She was instructed to buy iTunes gift cards – which she bought from shops in and around Stratford – to pay the money back.

Once she had collected the gift cards, the conman told her to remove the security tape from the back of the card and read out the serial numbers.

Police are now warning people to be vigilant to fraudsters, who are using iTunes gift cards to collect money from victims more frequently because they can be easily redeemed and sold on.

The scammers do not need the physical card to redeem the value and instead get victims to read out the serial code on the back over the phone.

People are urged to ring 999 and report calls like this if the crime is in progress or afterwards, to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

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