AN EIGHTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD woman was conned by scammers after she was told she needed to send her bank cards to St Helens to protect her from fraud.

Cleveland Police’s Economic Crime Unit has arrested two fraudsters last week after the elderly woman fell victim to the scam.

The woman, from the north east, had been contacted over the phone by fraudsters claiming to be from Barclays Bank.

She was told that she needed to send her bank cards to St Helens so her cards could be protected from fraud.

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The victim was told once the cards had undergone the ‘protection’ they needed then they would be sent back to her.

Bank cards belonging to the victim were posted to the St Helens address. A few days later the victim attended her bank to ask about her bank cards, and a banking protocol was invoked.

At this point, £1,000 had already been taken from her accounts.

Action Fraud was contacted and then the incident was passed over to the Economic Crime Unit.

A warrant was later executed at a St Helens address and two suspects were arrested.

'Paperwork suggested there are other victims'

Investigating Officer, Fraud Investigation Team Detective Constable Michelle Dack said: “Once this job was passed over to the team, I immediately conducted some inquiries with the banks to identify the locations of the victim’s bank cards.  The cards were traced to usage at two addresses in London and one in Leicester”.

“I then made some inquiries regarding the delivery of the bank cards to the Merseyside address and confirmed that this was the only delivery of this nature to this property.

Once I knew this, I contacted our colleagues at the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit who executed a warrant at the St Helens address and arrested two males.

“£1,600 cash was seized, and account freezing orders are being pursued to secure over £10,000 found in their bank accounts. Paperwork seized from the property recovered suggested that there are other victims who will now be traced and safeguarded.

“Both males have now been bailed pending further inquiries.

“Thankfully we managed to stop the fraudsters from stealing any more money from the victim - and we prevented further people from being scammed. The victim also received back the money that was stolen from her.”