HAMILTON - Thieves plundered $12,000 in 12 minutes from a Hamilton couple after stealing their credit cards, then tricking them into giving their personal identification numbers (Pin).
The couple, in their late 70s, are distraught they fell for the trick but police say the thieves may be targeting the elderly.
"They were so slick. They came in and it was all over in a matter of minutes," the woman said.
The victims said they did not want to be named because they were embarrassed.
The thieves struck as the couple were gardening at their Queenwood home on Sunday morning. They crept into the unlocked house and stole three wallets, containing four credit cards, and a cheque book.
The couple did not realise the cards had gone until a woman called at 11.30 am and said she was from the police. She claimed she needed Pin numbers for "the databank." She also described the wallets and told the woman victim she had caught two offenders in Te Rapa.
The woman gave the numbers and did not realise she had been tricked until she called the police and asked for the bogus policewoman.
"They said the officer didn't exist and I said, 'Well, I've been had."'
She immediately cancelled the cards but by that time the thieves had withdrawn $12,000, between 11.43 am and 11.55 am.
"They were so convincing. It makes you sick," she said. "You can't trust anyone, not even people who say they are the police."
Detective Sergeant Ross Ardern, of North Hamilton, said it was a warning to older people never to give out Pin numbers.
- NZPA
Bank card thieves fool elderly couple
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