A BERKSHIRE woman has told of her embarrassment at fooling for a police fraud scam.

Mrs A, a local ‘professional career woman’ who did not want to be named, lost £8,500 to fraudsters pretending to be from the Metropolitan Police.

A woman claiming to be the secretary of the Chief Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police made Mrs A to “feel special, important and crucial to the investigation” that she was supposedly helping the force with.

She said: “The scammers made me feel a confident and able person and I felt really good about doing a duty for the Metropolitan Police and being responsible for catching criminals.”

Mrs A subsequently handed over £21,000 to the scammers from her two bank accounts.

Her daughter then contacted the Thames Valley Police (TVP) about the transaction, who informed Mrs A that she had been the victim of a scam.

Mrs A said: “I felt foolish, vulnerable, afraid and embarrassed for falling for it.”

The victim was refunded £12,500 “within days” from her two banks after they were challenged by the PPP Trading Standards.

Mrs A, whose “confidence is returning” after receiving support from TVP, the PPP and adult social care, is just one of many who have been targeted by fraudsters in the last two years.

June is Scams Awareness Month and according to Citizens Advice, 72% of people surveyed from 2015-2017 said they had been targeted by fraudsters.

More than a third had been targeted on five occasions or more.

Bracknell Forest Cllr Iain McCracken, Chairman of the Joint Public Protection Committee, said: “Scams Awareness Month is an annual opportunity to raise awareness and take a stand against the crimes and predatory practices which affect millions of people.”

In 2017, it was reported that Bracknell’s disabled residents were vulnerable to ‘blue badge scams’ after it emerged that websites charged drivers £49 to obtain a blue badge parking permit.

The process to gain a permit, which allowed disabled drivers to park in disabled-only bays, usually cost residents £10.

Bracknell Forest Council received three separate reports of the scam and those who paid extra for the permits also forfeited personal information when purchasing the badge.