Published:
4:52 PM June 16, 2022
A woman who received a phone call threatening bailiffs were coming to seize items worth £4,000 hid her car and moved furniture before discovering it was an elaborate scam.
Jackie Heffer Cooke, 49, said her family suffered “three hours of hell” after being told she owed the money because she had failed to answer in a county court case.
The professional sounding caller claimed to be a certified bailiff and said a team would be at her door in two hours to collect debts relating to a website service subscription that she had failed to cancel.
She was given a reference number and phone contact to call Derby County Court which when she rang was answered by a second person who confirmed the claims.
Both people knew personal details including her family’s former address where court summons had supposedly been sent and the name of her former business.
Jackie Heffer Cooke received a call from someone with personal details claiming she owned money over a county court judgement
– Credit: Getty Images
“It was really frightening because it was so believable,” said Ms Heffer Cooke, who lives in Wymondham.
So panicked by the prospect of bailiffs on her doorstep she hid her car and moved garden furniture into the locked house to try to avoid them being seized.
Told she could stop the process by challenging the judgement she was sent an email form headed Derby County Court.
But she became suspicious after…
