A 75-year-old Alexandra man was scammed out of $47,000 last week - the third local incident of fraudulent activity in three months.

Alexandra Police Senior Constable Graham Perkins said the man thought he was speaking to a Sky Television service provider when he handed over bank details to the caller.

“People are warned to be sure of whom you are speaking with and never give away passcodes or pin numbers to any accounts. Please be vigilant,” he said.

This follows two incidents before Christmas of Central Otago men in their 90s that were scammed out of thousands of dollars from their bank accounts - one for $8500 and the other $19,000.

A 94-year-old man the week before Christmas was convinced by the caller that he had bitcoin that needed to be deposited into his bank account, and then watched online as money was instantly removed from two different accounts.

The same man had been scammed five years earlier as well and it appeared he had been targeted again, as the caller seemed to know his name.

A month ago before that another 94-year-old Alexandra man was scammed out of $19,000 from an online fraudster.

Senior Constable Graham Perkins said the scammer convinced the man to download two applications onto his laptop and then took control of his computer and mobile phone.

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