Warning on fraudster who has conned money out of North Yorkshire victims, claiming he is a detective called Mason Greenwood

People across Scarborough, Whitby and Filey are being warned of a bogus police scam.
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North Yorkshire Police says people across the county are being relentlessly targeted by a caller claiming to be Det Con Mason Greenwood from West Yorkshire Police.

There have been more than 20 reports of the ploy in the last two weeks alone and thousands of pounds have been lost.

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North Yorkshire Police is again issuing an urgent warning to anyone receiving this kind of call to hang up immediately.

Don't be caught out by the scammer.Don't be caught out by the scammer.
Don't be caught out by the scammer.

Stories given by the scammer include a claim that the victim’s grandson or nephew is in police custody and has possession of the victim’s debit or credit cards.

Another has been that there is a fraud investigation ongoing and the victim’s money is not safe in their current bank accounts.

The scammer will then ask people to move money from their account into another account for "safe-keeping" - but the reality is that the money is being stolen.

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North Yorkshire Police Financial Abuse Safeguarding Officer, Andy Fox, said: “We have already issued a number of warnings about this dangerous scam but residents continue to be targeted and, although we all like to think that we won’t fall for it, scammers work very hard to manipulate and build trust with their victim.

"Unfortunately, thousands of pounds have already been lost to this fraudster and we want to do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again."

The police say they will never ask you to transfer or withdraw money from your bank account or ask you to lie.

“We’d urge anyone reading this to please tell as many people you know about this scam," said Mr Fox.

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"The more people who are aware of it, the less these unscrupulous individuals will succeed in stealing any more money from their victims.”

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