Elderly Sydney residents are being warned to beware of a cold call scam after victims’ personal details were used to make thousands of dollars in fraudulent transactions. Residents from Sydney suburbs including Castle Hill, Penshurst, Rushcutters Bay, Allawah and Sans Souci reported being scammed in December and January. Police were told callers with a foreign accent pretended to be from a bank, and persuaded their victims to hand over personal information verbally or give documents to a fake courier. An 85-year-old Penshurst woman was tricked into giving up her personal details, and by the next day more than $11,000 in fraudulent transactions had been made. And nearly $5000 was spent after an 86-year-old Castle Hill man was persuaded to give his credit card information over the phone, with attempts to transfer another $10,000 blocked.
