A woman loses £15,000 to fraudsters posing as police officers
22 June 2026 · Age UK East Sussex
Fraudsters called an 83-year-old woman claiming to be police officers running an active investigation. Over several days they built her trust, gave her a cover story that required secrecy, and coached her through multiple visits to her bank branch to withdraw cash.
The final step was a man arriving at her home with a password she had been given in advance by the supposed officers. She handed him £15,000 in cash. Tracey Firth, Age UK East Sussex's Scams Officer, supported the family in understanding what had happened and helped them raise the case with the bank. The bank reviewed the evidence and reimbursed the full amount.
The case illustrates how multi-day social engineering works: urgency is built slowly, and the instruction to keep everything secret removes the one check that would have stopped it, telling someone you trust what is actually happening.
How this connects to Safve
This scam impersonated authority figures rather than a family member, so a safe word alone would not have been the deciding factor. But the instruction to keep it secret from family is what made the fraud possible. Having a trusted circle and a standing habit of checking with someone before acting on any urgent financial request, whoever is asking, is exactly what this case shows is missing.