RESIDENTS across North Yorkshire are being warned about a scam caller who has conned people out of thousands of pounds.

Over 20 reports in the last two weeks have been made about the caller who claims to be DC Mason Greenwood from West Yorkshire Police.

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

Reports have detailed various ‘stories’ given by the scammer including a claim that the victim’s grandson or nephew is in police custody and has possession of the victim’s debit or credit cards or that there is a fraud investigation ongoing and the victim’s money is not safe in their current bank account/s.

They will then ask the individual to move money from their account into another account for safe-keeping but the reality is that the money is being transferred to the scammer.

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.

“Please remember:

• The police will NEVER ask you to transfer or withdraw money from your bank account.

• The police will NEVER ask you to lie.

• You can always verify the identity of a police officer by asking for their collar number then hanging up and calling 101 from a different phone.

“We’d urge anyone reading this to please tell as many people you know about this scam, the more people who are aware of it, the less these unscrupulous individuals will succeed in stealing any more money from their victims.”