Fraud.A warning.Please read.

I only use PayPal now for online purchases. If they don't take PayPal I don't buy from them.

My PayPal account was used to try to buy a ridiculously expensive pair of designer trainers and an even more expensive pair of socks. Yes, socks I spotted it, and prevented it.

None of us are immune. None of us.

Blossoming

OnwardandUpward you should never assume that you are immune. That in itself makes you vulnerable.

I am not assuming to be immune, but I am extremely wary of anyone and never give out personal information to anyone at the door, or on the phone. If a scam did happen, it would not be through someone I have talked to because I don't talk them, that's what I am saying.

There is nothing so urgent that you can't walk away and take your time to think about it and do some research, that's what I am saying. A person who does this will be a lot harder to scam.

Now awful for you Busybeejay I do hope that you get your money back.
I’m sure I read recently that there were changes afoot in the banking industry with regards to refunds in fraud cases.

As an aside, it is always prudent to keep a minimum amount in current accounts at all times. It is far harder to scam from savings accounts.

When my boys were young I worked part time for a high street bank in a mainly back-office role in a telephone contact centre. On average we headed off scams in the region of £2M per month in our centre alone, and there were a dozen or so centres around the country.
People moan about having to set security to access their own money but it is there for a reason.

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Anybody can get caught out! Clever people successfully running businesses get caught out.
Nobody is immune.
One good way to stay a step ahead is to subscribe to free email scam alerts from The Which? Report.
www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/scams

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My feelings exactly greciangirl. And banks check that someone such as OP transferring a large amount of money other than to a regular payee knows what they are doing. If you ignore the bank’s warnings you should not expect them to refund you.
Credit card fraud is an entirely different matter - our card details get sold on by unscrupulous people after we have made an online purchase even from the most trusted of sites and of course sites get hacked. It’s happened to me a couple of times and credit card companies refund the money straight away if you haven’t been negligent because they want to continue making money out of you.

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What a cold-hearted, thoughtless thing to say Greciangirl.

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I have some words for what's going on but I'd get deleted and probably banned.

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I ignore anything I am not 100% sure about. If it is something important then I will get a letter or other means of identifying whoever is asking for money etc.

Serendipity22

Ohh no, no, no.... i am soooo sorry to read this.

Ring your bank first thing tomorrow and see what can be done. I have heard of that precise scam before.

The other day some scum scammers tried to get 1 over me.

It was a Whatsapp message saying Hi mum i have had to get a new phone, this is my number i am using.

So, immediately i thought it was my son because he has been having trouble with his phone.

Then the scammer typed I hate asking but could you loan me some money to pay an invoice and i pay you back next week.

I do not know what it was ( probably me being a sceptical person.) But i had a niggling that this WASNT my son.

So i rang the number that the scammer was sending me the Whatsapp messages on.

Ring, ring ring ring...NO ANSWER.

then i gets another message Cant answer phone.

Then another message. Can I send you the amount i need?

I rang my son ( who lives abroad) and he confirmed it was not him, i rang my daughter just incase to see if it was her, NO not her either.

So it was some scammer TRYING their level best to get £££££££ ... well they got zilch.

I really am soooo sorry..... contact your bank tomorrow, they will be able to help you.

The scam mentioned above by Serendipity22 was mentioned on Rip Off Britain (BBC) today. It is rife on WhatsApp and very successful as it preys on parents who immediately hasten to help their children. BEWARE! So sorry to hear you were caught by this other scam, @busybeejay. However banks seem to be more willing to reimburse people who have been scammed these days.

Anyone can be caught off-guard. I was providing end of life nursing to an elderly woman in her own home and 'BT' phoned and threatened to cut off the phone. It was for a tiny amount e.g. £5.99 but on a technicality it couldn't be over-ridden as the debt was long-standing.

I told the chap the nature of my being there and asked that the phone not be cut off as it was how the district nurses made contact prior to coming to refill the syringe driver, but he was unmoved. I nearly paid the amount myself but remembered that I'm not supposed to get involved in clients' finances, so gave him the number of the next of kin.

NOK lost £2000 - not stupid or negligent, just distressed and distracted, and a very high-ranking member of the Judiciary.

Somewhat off piste but I keep getting this message on Facebook. “You are featured in this video”. Never open it, I know I have not been on anyones video. I don’t know what happens if you open it but no doubt it is a scam.

I do hope you get your money back - all this is so common now. It happens on my landline and my mobile. Most recent was on Facebook via their messenger system- I received a message supposedly from my cousin with her Facebook photo at the top. The first was just - how are you etc etc- so I replied- then came how she had won a wonderful prize - would I like to join in - they used the word ‘awesome’ - I knew from that, that it wasn’t my cousin? she’d never use that vocabulary- so I said ‘this is a scam - will never have anything to do with it’ They tried once more - pleading that it wasn’t a con - their word - so I shut it down. They’re persistent - never give up- we all have to be as wary as we can be. So sorry about your money scam - it’s really cruel and dreadful - these people don’t care.

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I may be barking up the wrong tree here, if so forgive me,

I thought mobile phones worked in the same way irrespective of which country you are in and who your tele-communications' provider is.

I can block all unidentified calls to my phone. By unidentified I mean a person whose name and phone number is not typed in by me in my list of contacts.

Once this is done, the phone simply does not ring when anyone else tries to get through.

This saves me a lot of annoying phone calls and limits the risk of being caught out by a scammer.

It may well be that some are clever enough to get round this precaution, but most are not. I think they just hear the dialing tone when they ring me, so they do not realise I have blocked unknown callers.

If I need to be able to accept a call from someone not on the list, I can either remove the block on unidentified call until I have heard from them, or more usually, I just add their phone number and company name to my list of contacts.

Alegrias1

I have some words for what's going on but I'd get deleted and probably banned.

Me too.

Shropshirelass You mentioned WhasApp.

WhatsApp is not safe because despite being end-to-end encrypted, it does ask for your contacts. This puts your personal information at risk. The company also tracks the amount of time you spend using the app and shares it with Facebook, who own WhatsApp. My DD got suspicious last year with a text she thought was from a friend and didn't open a link it included.

A little bit of compassion wouldn't go amiss.

Thank you for this scam alert
Always grateful to be reminded to stay alert.

Can we confine this thread to supporting the OP?
As Riverwalk has illustrated, anyone can be duped by scammers. Yes, I do mean anyone.
Let’s show some kindness.