AN elderly woman was conned out of £1,500 by scammers posing as police officers.

Deborah Simmons, 82, of Sinclair Road, Chingford, received a phone call from the scam artists, who told her someone had accessed her bank accounts and they needed her PIN numbers.

Mrs Simmons said: “I had a call purporting to come from the police station. They told me I’d had two sums of money withdrawn from my account, £400 and £800.

“I trusted they were who they said they were - they said they would need the PIN numbers on the cards so they could cancel them.”

The conmen then told her they would get in touch with the banks where she holds accounts to report the “fraud”.

“I also had phone calls from people who said they were the managers of Alliance and Leicester saying they had cancelled my credit cards - it must have been the same people,” Mrs Simmons said.

“They said they would send someone round to collect the cards. They took two debit cards and they said they were going to take them to Scotland Yard.

“They used them to access the bank accounts and then the next day, I got another phone call asking if I had any more bank cards.”

The fraudsters also tried to persuade Mrs Simmons to withdraw £300 from an ISA account, but because her card had expired, she was unable to do so.

She later discovered a transaction had been made using one of her other accounts at furniture retailer Land of Leather, totalling more than £1,500.

“I was with my granddaughter over the weekend and twigged I had been done,” Mrs Simmons said.

“It’s all a bit of a shock.”

The crime comes a year after the Guardian revealed Waltham Forest is a hotspot for burglaries by bogus callers, with 564 between 2004 and last year.

Det Det Insp Brian McCluskey, of Chingford CID, said there has been a high number of distraction burglaries in Chingford because of its large numbers of more affluent, older people, and its proximity to the M25 and M11, allowing crooks to make an easy getaway.

The man that came to Mrs Simmons' door, at about 2.30pm on April 9, and took her cards is described as being 5ft tall, wearing a peaked cap and with a dark complexion. He is believed to be about 40 years old.

Police are now investigating the incident, anybody with information should call police on 0300 123 1212.