POLICE are warning residents to be on their guard after a spate of telephone frauds in the Evesham area.

In the latest incident, a Wickhamford resident described as vulnerable was conned into handing over s sum of money by scammers pretending to be police investigating money laundering.

The victim was called at about 1.40pm on Wednesday by a man who said he was police officer from Scotland Yard who had someone in custody in London for money laundering.

The resident was under the impression that the line had cleared and dialled 999 to verify the call; it appeared to ring out and was answered by a woman purporting to be a police officer based at Evesham.

She said police needed to inspect the resident’s money for the offence of money laundering and that they would be given a receipt for it. The caller was very persistent and the victim unfortunately divulged home address details and agreed for the money to be collected.

At 3.30pm, a courier arrived at the address and was given a quantity of money. The offender is described as a white male aged 20-30, around five feet five inches tall, with thick eyebrows, wearing a darkish grey hoodie and dark grey bottoms with patterned shoes.

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101, citing incident number 0429s/180516.

The fraud follows an incident at Lenchwick, when a resident was called by a man who said he was from BT and said there was a problem with the resident's direct debit.

The resident then got a second call from someone who said there was a national alert and that his bank account had been hacked. Unfortunately the recipient divulged bank details, and money was stolen from his account.

The incident number is 0593s/180516.

Similar calls have been made to residents in the Pershore area, for which the incident number is 0096s/180516.

Yesterday the Worcester News reported that an elderly man in Evesham was conned into handing over money by fraudsters again claiming to be from Scotland Yard, and an elderly couple in Pershore had a similar call, but hung up.

Police are warning residents never to reveal bank account details or personal details over the phone, and if they get a call like this, to hang up immediately, and call police and their bank using another phone line.