People in east London are being threatened with violence if they do not hand over large sums of money, Scotland Yard says.

Detectives are investigating a series of blackmail offences in which a man has made threatening phone calls to individuals, families and households using various tactics to disguise his identity.

Detective Constable Michael Beskine said: “The man’s method is frightening. He obtains the personal details of his victims and then calls them whilst disguising his telephone number as the numbers of his victims' friends and family to trick his victims into answering the phone. He tells his victims their addresses, their family member's names and other facts to scare them, before demanding money and threatening them with acts of violence.

“The man’s behaviour during calls is aggressive. Sometimes he has stated that victims owe money to him or that they owe money to a third party, or even that someone known to them owes money to a third party. He has a British accent.

“We have identified two victims – neither of whom made payments to the man – but there are likely to be other victims who have not yet come forward."

An initial investigation identified one group of victims in east London and another group of victims in Bedfordshire.

As enquiries continue, detectives wish to hear from any other people who believe that they man be a victim of this man and ask that they call police on 101 or Tweet @MetCC quoting Cad 3849/12FEB21

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