Fraud­sters pre­tend­ing to be po­lice of­fi­cers have been schem­ing phone card deal­ers out of thou­sands of dol­lars. The lat­est in­ci­dent oc­curred last Wednes­day in Gas­par­il­lo. It is re­port­ed around 10.35 am a 23-year-old lot­to ma­chine op­er­a­tor was at her work­place at Lums­den Street when she re­ceived a call from a man who said he was a sergeant at the Mara­bel­la Po­lice Sta­tion.

Po­lice said the man asked for a num­ber of di­rect top-ups and phone card num­bers. She is­sued $30,000 in di­rect top-ups and $8,610 in phone card num­bers. Po­lice said yes­ter­day there has been an in­crease in peo­ple pre­tend­ing to be po­lice of­fi­cers who have re­quest­ed di­rect top-ups. They al­so have urged lot­to op­er­a­tors and phone card deal­ers to be wary of peo­ple ask­ing for them.