and so she gradually started to go through all these transactions. 10,000 going to nigeria and 10,000 to spain. we absolutely believed. we d lost it. ..that we d dialled 999. yeah. and we absolutely believed we d spoken to our bank. and so therefore you have absolutely no reason to think that there was anything untoward going on. i was actually, like, in tears at that point. distraught. because i was saying, you know, they ve taken everything that we ve got. we ve ever worked for. with jane and mark convinced their account had been cleaned out, the fake police then told them they could help catch the crooks. they said they d pay £6,000 into jane and mark s account and use it as bait. alljane and mark had to do was withdraw it. you look back now and you think, how stupid were we? yeah. but, at that moment in time, it was. ..it was quite terrifying. and it was very real. and it was so real. very, very real. and they were very, very convincing. when they got home from the bank, the sca
i said, i d like to verify a warrant card. she said, yes, what officer? so i gave the name, gave the warrant card. yes, he is a police officer. what mark didn t realise was the scammers hadn t hung up their side of the call. they d kept the line open and played a fake dialling tone, so mark thought he was ringing the police. well, at that point. we d come together in the office, hadn t we? yeah. i was sort of saying, what s going on? mark said, come and help me, something s going on with our bank account. i was like, how much.how much have we lost, what are we talking? and they said, well, we can t give you that detail but if you d like to phone your own bank by using the number on the back of your bank card, so it alljust seemed very genuine. whenjane rang the bank, once again, the scammers had kept the line open. jane was taken in by the woman on the phone.
goodness me. last year, geoff and jane were targeted by scammers pretending to be the police. a gentleman said that he was from the police, he was a police inspector, and that money had been taken from our account. he was suggesting that it wanted to be investigated further. the scammer said they wanted geoff and jane s help, but what they didn t know was the real police were already onto them, and were also talking to geoff and jane. they said, you ve been talking on the phone from a number that we ve been tracing. this is a fraudster, and if we were willing to help them, then they might be able to catch the people who were perpetrating these. mm. ..these frauds. a detective came to the house
and was filming when they got their next call from the scammers. he was very, very. ..erm, isuppose, caring. mm. it was all the time, it was, please, don t worry, you re being brilliant, you re being a great help. jane and geoff were told that not only were corrupt bank officials stealing their money, they were also handling counterfeit notes. the fraudsters told the couple there was a way to catch the bent officials red handed go to the bank and withdraw £5,000 in cash. right, ok. so you just want me to put the phone down and not. leave the line open. 0k. the offenders make sure that the victims keep - their phone lines open, and the reason for that| is the fact that they can t then
offence is now being looked at on a wider scale, i with a series of similar offences. geoff and jane didn t lose any money, but the police operation failed. no one s been arrested. fraudsters often operate across county borders, so police forces must work together. panorama has been given access to a joint fraud special operations unit. officers from six forces are taking part. courierfraud is a massive issue, nationally. the team i now represent will look at the organised crime groups solely. criminals who are sophisticated in their methodology. knock at door. police.