VICTIMS of a growing “credit card courier scam” have issued a warning to other potential targets after £450 was withdrawn from their accounts.

Ken and Helen Wood, of Appleford Drive, Abingdon, had £250 charged to their credit card and £200 withdrawn from their current account by fraudsters.

They posed as representatives from the couple’s bank and persuaded them to send their cards off by courier and reveal their pin numbers.

Now the Woods are waiting to hear if credit card provider John Lewis and bank Natwest will refund the money.

It comes after several other victims revealed their stories in national newspapers and the official fraud body Action Fraud made an appeal for vigilance.

At about 4pm last Friday, housewife Mrs Wood, 57, received a call from a man claiming to be from the jeweller H Samuel.

He told her someone was trying to use a clone of her card to buy £1,500 of jewellery, and that she should call her bank.

She called the number on the back of her card, believing it would connect her with NatWest, but the fraudsters were still on the line, ready to take all her details, including her pin number, and instruct her to send her cards off with a courier.

Mrs Wood said: “Because you think you’ve phoned your bank, you reassure yourself, even if you do think it’s a bit suspicious.

“I think it’s quite clever psychology they use, because it is a shock to be told you’ve lost so much money, and they build on that.

“It wasn’t until much later on when we actually made contact with the bank that we realised. I just feel very embarrassed and stupid that I’d fallen for it, because it seems so obvious with the benefit of hindsight.”

Mr Wood, 54, said: “When you put the phone down, they stay on the phone, so when you call back and think you’re calling your bank, you’re actually calling them.

“We immediately blocked the cards when we realised what had happened, and we were quite lucky. The longer you leave it, the more they take from you.”

He said he was concerned other people would be taken in by the scam, which makes people panic and break rules they know well.

Head of Action Fraud Steve Proffitt said: “Fraud is not a victimless crime. It significantly affects people’s lives and we take all reports extremely seriously.

“Your banks will never ask you to hand over your PIN or transfer funds over the phone.

“If you receive a phone call that seems suspicious, end the call immediately.”