A DUNFERMLINE woman conned out of nearly £500 has bravely spoken of her ordeal to warn others of the dangers of passing out sensitive information on the phone.

The 82-year-old grandmother, who asked not to be identified, hoped that by recounting her story she would warn other members of the public to be alert at all times, and stop them being ripped-off in the same way.

The woman recently fell victim to the telephone conman who cleverly encouraged her to compromise her account information.

Talking to The Courier yesterday, she said, “He said he was phoning from the bank, and without thinking I said the name of my bank.

“He said he was phoning because of the postal strike, which all sounded all right, and he asked for my account number and bank code and that was that.”

When her daughter and granddaughter returned home, the pensioner voiced her fears to her family and, highly concerned and suspicious, they immediately went to the local post office to check her account.

And that was when they made the shock discovery the conman had already managed to steal £495 of the account, which she used to pay her bills.

“They came back and phoned the bank and got my account stopped before he could steal any more,” she said.

“That money was for my bills, and being on a pension and at this time of year, I needed it.”

Thankfully, the bank has reimbursed the pensioner and so she faces a far less bleak Christmas than she initially thought she would.

Being extremely polite, she said the crook “was not very nice” and she wanted to help as a deterrent to others who might be cajoled into giving out personal details.

“I was a bit shaky at the time when it first happened and that’s why I wanted to speak out, to see if it could stop him doing it again.”

Police are investigating the fraud, which happened on November 2.

A spokesman said the caller was a well-spoken man who proceeded to convince the pensioner to give out detailed information.

Local community inspector Neil Henderson said, “The caller has known a number of facts about the victim and has used them to gain her confidence and compromise her account.

“I would remind the public that banks will not ask for sensitive information over the phone and that if in any doubt about the genuine nature of a call, they should ask to call them back to confirm the integrity of the call.”