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Elderly couple smelt rat over PPI scam which nearly cost them £400

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AN ELDERLY couple have warned others to be vigilant over PPI scams after they nearly lost £400 to suspected con artists.

A cold caller told John Burdass, 76, of Ulceby, that he was entitled to £5,000 in repayments after being mis-sold payment protection insurance – and that obtaining the money would be easy.

Mr Burdass, who had a heart operation this year, had paid PPI on a loan some years before so, when the insistent caller told him that a colleague was coming to his house, he reluctantly agreed.

"The man on the phone was very pushy about getting someone around to my house to get my signature on the required forms," said Mr Burdass. "At this point I wasn't worried, so I gave them my address and the man turned up the next day."

The man, of Asian descent, arrived at the house, where Mr Burdass lives with wife Eva, 74, with a pile of forms for them to sign.

Mrs Burdass said: "He was clearly a professional and knew what he was doing. He was very friendly, and after a cup of coffee and less than 30 minutes in our house he was gone with the forms."

However, on Wednesday, November 7, the couple became concerned when they were called again and asked to make two cash payments of £200 and £180 as a handling fee before they could get the £5,000 they were entitled to.

Mr Burdass, who has had operations on both of his knees, was asked to make the payments via a credit system at the local Co-op, but could not get there to find out because of his mobility problems.

He said: "I've had both my knees operated on and my wife uses a stroller, so walking distances is a lot of effort for us.

"This, coupled with our suspicions about the cash payment, meant we decided not to go ahead with giving our money away. We decided it was just a scam at this point."

John and Eva were called again later that evening and asked why the payment had not been made.

Eva said: "We explained we felt uneasy about the payment and were told that we would now not receive the £5,000 we were promised.

"We have our pension but not much more, so £380 would have been a lot of money to us.

"I'm just glad we worked out that it was a scam in time."

The couple, still shocked about the entire encounter, haven't been contacted since the last phone call but want to warn others against falling for similar operations.

Mr Burdass added: "Our aim now is to ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else."

Following the incident, Neil Clark, North East Lincolnshire Council's Trading Standards community protection manager, said: "Scams come in many guises, but all are designed to prey on consumers and convince them to part with money on the promise of getting more back later.

"The couple here have acted wisely by smelling a rat and not paying the handling fee or administration fee usually done through legitimate cash transfer vouchers available at your local shop.

"As with all scams, my advice is don't give any personal information away on the doorstep or on the telephone and don't trust anyone with your precious signature.

Report issues

You can report fraud using Action Fraud's online reporting service. It also provides help and advice through the Action Fraud contact centre. You can talk to a fraud specialist by calling 0300 1232040.

If you feel that you may have been a victim of this, or any other scam, please contact Trading Standards via Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 08454 0405 06.

Elderly couple smelt rat over PPI scam which nearly cost them £400


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