Police are warning people of the dangers of fraudsters offering loans over the telephone after a Coleford woman fell victim to a scam earlier this month.

The 42-year-old woman was phoned at home by people claiming to be from a loan company and offering to lend her £5000 if she paid some upfront fees for "solicitors and paperwork".

The victim withdrew over £1700 in total in Ukash vouchers and when the offenders rang back read them the voucher codes, which meant they could redeem the money.

She never heard back from the callers and did not receive any loan.

The incident follows another phone scam in which a Coleford man was targeted in October. In that case, a 48-year-old man, considered vulnerable, was defrauded of £9000 when he was called by men claiming to be from London Magistrates` Court and telling him if he didn`t pay the money he would have to go to court and possibly prison. He then started paying the money in instalments.

When police investigated the origin of the calls they found that the fraudsters had rung from countries including China, India, Russia, Romania and Croatia. The bank account was traced to Switzerland.

Crime Reduction Officer for the force Paul Francis said: “These people often target the vulnerable and can be very manipulative.“Our advice if you get any call like these is to hang up immediately.”