The family of an elderly man conned out of close to £3,000 by "compelling" crypto scammers haved warned others to be alert.
A scammer contacted the South Tyneside man, who is being kept anonymous to protect his identity, over the phone in August suggesting they could help with online banking, and built up a relationship with him before offering an investment opportunity, a family member told the BBC.
"They'd been calling him for weeks, when I caught a strange number calling I knew instantly it was a scam," they said. "He'd already transferred over around £3,000 and he'd been set to send over another £8,000."
Northumbria Police said crypto scams had been "rising" in recent years.
The scammer used information he had learned from the victim to create a fake story involving cryptocurrency, before talking him through ways to move money into the crypto account.
