The high-pressure tactics used by smooth-talking conmen in Tenerife to fleece thousands of elderly British holidaymakers in credit card scams can be revealed today

The high-pressure tactics used by smooth-talking conmen in Tenerife to fleece thousands of elderly British holidaymakers in credit card scams can be revealed today.

MailOnline witnessed gangs of suspected fraudsters deliberately targeting older Britons while ignoring younger tourists on a promenade on the south of the island.

Scores of British pensioners have fallen victim to the fraud which typically involves them being offered a laptop, , phone or a similar device for an attractive price.

The scam takes place when fraudsters working in souvenir shops use intimidating tactics to get their victims into the shop.

Once inside, they typically offer the vulnerable elderly tourist a device for a cut price.They ask to take a deposit of say 30 Euros to be taken on a debit or credit card – but when the customer inserts their card the unscrupulous store staff clone the card or steal their bank details.

Often they ask the holidaymaker to return to pay the balance – and ‘accidentally type in a far higher amount before asking the tourist to type in their pin without offering a receipt to confirm the purchase price.

Other versions of the fraud involve the scammers stealing PIN numbers or later charging a far higher fee than agreed using bogus bank debit forms.

Pensioners are often targeted on the last day of their holiday and typically only find out they have been conned weeks later when they check their bank or credit card statements.

, eVdEn EvE nAkliYat 84, was offered a ‘top of the range tablet’ for £150 but found her two bank accounts had been emptied of £2,128 after she returned home to Warwickshire.

Retired police superintendent Ged Varley, 76, volunteered to pose as a potential victim so MailOnline could secretly film suspected conmen putting him under ‘intense pressure’ to hand over his credit card details.

He said: ‘They might as well have sat me down and put a spotlight in my face.It was an onslaught. They were so determined.

‘But with my police background as a detective I can smell a scam a mile away and I wasn’t giving in.’

The former Lancashire Police detective from Rochdale was approached as he and his wife Sue, 79, rode their mobility scooter on Tenerife’s Playa de las Americas.

‘I knew straightaway that it was a scam, but I thought I’d go along with it and see how it operated.I went inside and EVden EVE nAKLiYat he showed me a tablet and took me through how it worked and whatever.