A MAN who was conned out of his £9,000 life savings by telephone fraudsters has warned people to be on their guard.

The 60-year-old, who the Lancashire Telegraph has chosen not to name, said he was left feeling ‘foolish and angry’ after being duped by conmen demanding iTunes vouchers.

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The victim, from Blackburn, said the fraudsters used intimidation, threatened to come around to his property and at one point said if he didn’t comply it could end up costing him £46,000 in fines and court costs.

The con only ended when kind-hearted supermarket staff questioned why the victim was spending so much money on vouchers.

Police said they are talking to Apple to see if some of the money can be refunded.

The victim said: “I had a phone call on my landline number from someone who said they were from the Inland Revenue.

“They said I owed £3,825 and there were two ways we could settle it.

“One was for them to ring the police who would lock me up until the trial or I could settle out of court.

“Foolish me, said we’ll settle out of court.

“Then they started making demands for iTunes vouchers.

“They said it would be £2,000 to keep me out of prison or between £46,000 in court costs if I went down that route.

“Then they just started piling it on each time they rang. They rang me about half a dozen times. They had me read the codes off the back of the iTunes cards.

“The man on the other end of the phone was either American or Canadian. He said his name was David. He didn’t give me a surname. He told me not to tell anybody. He said if I did all the work I had done would be in vain.

“At one point they said they were going to send two men around to pick the cards up. But they never showed up. I was terrified.

“It ended up at about £9,000 in the end.

“I feel angry with myself for letting myself for being taken in. I have lost my entire life savings. I am completely broke.

“The people who have done this to me are scum.”

The man went to various stores in Blackburn, including Tesco, PC World, Asda and Game, over a period of days and bought hundreds of pounds in vouchers each time.

In total he bought around 200 separate vouchers.

The man said: “If it hadn’t been for Tesco I would have lost more.

“They quizzed me when I was buying £1,000 worth of vouchers. I broke down and told them why. They rang the police.

“If anybody receives a call from these people I would urge them to put the phone down straight away and then call the police.

“When I received the first phone call I was mortified.

“I genuinely thought I owed this money.

“I was a bag of nerves answering the phone each time after that thinking it would be them demanding more.

“I managed to trace their numbers and they had Manchester and London dialling codes.”

No arrests have been made in connection with the fraud and police are urging anybody who receives similar demands to come forward.

A similar fraud was reported to police in Padiham earlier this year.

PC Stewart Duckworth, who is investigating the latests offence, said: “It is clear these people are targeting vulnerable people and praying on their vulnerability.

“This man was petrified.

“Some people do not have the support networks such as a family member or friends to go to for help and are pressured to pay up debt they do not have.

“This man has lost an incredible amount of money.

“We are working with iTunes to see if they will refund the full or part of the amount that was used to buy vouchers.”

Apple, the creator of iTunes, acknowledges a number of scams have been created using their products.

It’s website reads: “A string of scams are taking place asking people to make payments over the phone for things such as taxes, hospital bills, bail money, debt collection, and utility bills.

“The scams are committed using many methods, including gift cards.

“As the fraudsters are sometimes using iTunes gift cards, we want to make sure our customers are aware of these scams.

“If you’re approached to use iTunes gift cards for payment outside of the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or Apple Music, you could very likely be the target of a scam and should immediately report it to the police.”

Tesco declined to comment.

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101.