{"id":50799,"date":"2025-08-07T16:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50799\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T16:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:31:09","slug":"sophisticated-new-letterbox-scam-fleecing-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50799\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophisticated new ‘letterbox scam’ fleecing tens of thousands of dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: A man is being hunted by police over a new “letterbox scam” fleecing tens of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting pensioners.<\/p>\n

Bridgette, 74, who only wanted her first name used, told A Current Affair she felt “reeled in” by the sophisticated con.<\/p>\n

In May this year her computer began “flashing” and saying it had been “hacked”.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Police remove squatters from buyback homes after court blow\ufeff<\/a><\/p>\n

A man is being hunted by police over a new “letterbox scam” fleecing tens of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting pensioners. (A Current Affair)<\/p>\n

After calling the “support” number that came up on her screen, Bridgette said the man at the other end of the line, who called himself Peter, said he needed her help to “catch these felons” who hacked her computer.<\/p>\n

“I really thought we were working together to catch these hackers,” Bridgette said.<\/p>\n

“Of course he was helping himself.”<\/p>\n

The man told the pensioner, from Sunbury in Melbourne’s north-west, to place her bank cards in her letterbox as they had also been compromised.<\/p>\n

He said they would be collected and re-issued.<\/p>\n

Instead, the 74-year-old’s card was collected by criminals and used at a jewellery shop in Hampshire Road, Sunshine, with security vision capturing a person of interest walking out of the store with more than $30,000 worth of items.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Tens of thousands draining their superannuation for medical procedures\ufeff<\/a><\/p>\n

Security vision captured a person of interest. (A Current Affair)<\/p>\n

Victoria Police Detective Senior Constable Jack Aldersea said days later, an almost identical incident occurred to a 73-year-old Reservoir man, who was fleeced of more than $45,000.<\/p>\n

His card was also used at the same jewellery store and more money was withdrawn from his bank account at ATMs.<\/p>\n

“They prey on and take advantage of people that clearly don’t deserve it,” Aldersea said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately they seem to know or find out, whichever way they do, people that are in this age bracket and they target them.<\/p>\n

“They might not be as good at computers or technology.”<\/p>\n

If you recognise the man, or have further information, contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a report online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive: A man is being hunted by police over a new “letterbox scam” fleecing tens of thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-50799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}