Fraud.A warning.Please read.

GN is the only social media I use Dickens so I get little or no information about scams here. But I do read a newspaper and stories of these scams are very common. There are so many obvious red flags in what little the OP has told us that I find it difficult to sympathise, and the expectation that the bank should foot the bill is, to me, grossly unfair.

Wow, so many people ‘victim blaming’. I have never heard or seen any warnings about these things on TV because I don’t watch TV! I’m aware of them because I worked as a software developer and still receive notifications about fraud and system security.

The OP is not the criminal here, nobody is immune from professional criminals with a good story.

I really hope you get your money back Busybeejay.

GSM how harsh and unsympathetic !!

I hope you will get your money back busybeejay. None of us are immune as scams are getting more and more sophisticated. Every time my land line rings I suspect it’s a scammer because most people I know use mobile to contact me.
However often get scams on mobiles too.

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m not so sure she will get her money back. This is such a well publicised scam. Anyone still falling for it is negligent and in my opinion should not expect to have their money refunded by their bank. How many times do people have to be warned?

I've been scammed many times, but never fallen for it - because I'm sufficiently informed to be wary of any request for personal details - especially those relating to my bank account.

But the fact I'm informed is because I read widely on social media and other information outlets and have a circle of friends and acquaintances. Not everyone is the same as me though, some lead very sheltered lives and do not interact on the 'net either. And some individuals are simply naïve. A 'phone call from the 'police' can put some into panic-mode which makes it difficult to be reasoned and rational, leaving no time to reflect on what you are being told.

A little empathy wouldn't have gone amiss here. The OP is probably going to learn a very expensive lesson.

GSM
Yes you would have thought that by now we would all know what to ignore or how to go about ascertaining the truth.
The thing is that there are a lot of people out there that don’t

I had a client in the other day who received a text message whilst she was with me re. a transaction she had just made.
Please phone this number… she had just moved some money so was ready to believe it. Chances are we’ve all just made a transaction of some sort.
I absolutely told her to ring her bank using the number on the back of her card on a different phone. I offered her the use of mine. She said she would do it on her landline when she got home.
She couldn’t get through so rang me that evening to tell me she had used the number on the mobile and they were very nice. Asked her lots of questions but then, unfortunately, their computers went down! I told her she must go into her bank the next day. I hope it was OK, we went on holiday the next day so I couldn’t be any more helpful. I will find out next week.

Some people still do not get it.

GSM you’re being very harsh not everyone knows everything yes it’s been around a long time and we all like to think we would never get caught out but in the heat of the moment who knows how straight we would be thinking Did I read that youre involved in some way in law maybe in your world your a very clear thinking person we aren’t all blessed the same way
Quite different but many many years ago I was travelling by coach and whilst waiting for my next bus to arrive a well dressed young man sat near me he was very upset as he was trying to urgently get to his his Dad who he had just had an alert that he was dying and as it was a Saturday he couldn’t get through to his bank to get money for his ticket he kept going off to make phone calls and was truly convincing I felt so sorry for him and I said I d pay for his ticket at first he refused vehemently ( this all added cleverly to his genuiness) of course if I d had had GMS wits I would have gone to the office and bought the ticket myself but I didn’t I gave him some money (which I could ill afford) he was so thankful and took my address to send the money back I was so foolish I looked every day for the post which of course never came
You are not alone Busybeejay

So sorry about the scam. I really hope you get your money back.

There are LOADS of scams though. This is a constant thing, so

Please
please
please
please
please
do. not. talk. to. people. who. cannot. prove. who. they. are.

I think a lot of scammers are targeting older people who eagerly pick up the phone and are willing to talk because they are lonely. Please make sure you learn about healthy boundaries and learn how to say no.

No one who is phoning you has any right to any information about you. If you are not sure they are who they say they are, ask them to prove it. Ask for it in writing! Or ask them to email you. If they are who they say they are, they will have your postal address and email address already. If that's not "ok", you will know they are fraudulent.

Even the police are not above corruption. Look what has happened in the Met.

I am not condemning anyone or saying they are stupid but these criminals are opportunists that will prey on your weakness or politeness. So please stop being polite and saying yes when you should be saying no. Every day someone tries to scam me, so it's happening to everyone and anyone.

I hope the crooks are caught. Meanwhile, we need to be alert and never do anything without playing detective.

You can always say you can't talk right now and ask for their number to ring them back- or ask them to ring you back- then get their number and google it.

Please do anything you can to avoid giving money or info to anyone.

I'm not engaging with this any more. Time to stop GSM. If you want to discuss the ethics of protecting victims of scams, start another thread.

for busybeejay

So sorry this has happened to you, don’t feel silly as they can be very convincing. Scams are becoming more sophisticated now, they are also using WhatsApp - I thought this was very secure! There has been a discussion on scams on TV this morning. They do say to use a different phone when calling the bank or police due to phone tampering. My parents had some calls that worried them but fortunately they always contacted me before doing anything! I do hope you get your money back.

Tell me why a bank which had no part in the fraud should pay up, Alegrias. Just the nearest ‘person’ with deep pockets so they can afford it? I’m sure you know that many UK banks participate in a scheme to refund victims of scams in certain circumstances. I said nothing about trying to catch the perpetrators of the scam because they and the money are usually long gone and rarely are they based in the UK.

I was expecting support from Gransnet.I had never heard of this scam nor had any of my friends or family.We have hardly been out because of COVID so not mixing with people who might have warned us.
I feel old and vulnerable and negative comments don’t help.

I do so agree, Alegrias1.

Not so long ago I read in the Sunday Times (IIRC) of a financial journalist - I think one of theirs - who’d been scammed. If someone like that can fall for it…..

You would have thought that, would you? Well I wish we were all as switched on and aware as you are GSM. But I suppose its a terribly good idea to penalise people who maybe aren't as razor sharp as you are, rather than trying to catch the perpetrators. That'll teach then for not being on top of their game, all hours of the day and night.

I find your attitude shocking. And how you can write about it in a thread where someone is telling us about how they were scammed, on a site that's meant to be supportive of people, that just beggars belief.

Alegrias, this type of scam has been going on for years and I would have thought that by now all of us would have read the stories of people taken in by it. But the OP says she hadn’t heard of it. I can’t imagine how anyone would think that the police would phone them about a suspected fraud at their bank (how do they know which bank you use?), nor that if they dialled 999 and asked for PC Plod they would be put through to him. And we haven’t heard the full story, which obviously involved being told to transfer money in an attempt to catch these fictitious fraudsters at the bank. Also, the bank may well have queried the transfer request, assuming that the OP isn’t in the habit of regularly transferring such sums. And of course the scammers would have told her how to deal with that eventuality. People who still fall for this really shouldn’t expect the bank to refund them.

Its very unfair to people who have been scammed to boast that it would never happen to you. None of us are immune to this and although I have personally never been scammed, there have been times when I have received emails that looked both genuine and urgent, and that's in personal and business life. Have some awareness of how convincing these people can be and be aware of your own weaknesses, you're not exempt.

While terribly sorry for the OP I couldn’t imagine falling for such an obvious scam.
Having said that my mother thought every letter she received addressed to Mrs Esspee had been personally sent to her and refused to believe that they were marketing shots.

Sarnia, and - it's very important to use a different phone line (like your mobile) or phone somebody else - to check that the scammers really have hung up.

It's so very easy for them to stay on the line, play you a fake 'dialling tone', then pretend to answer as your bank!

How sickening for you busybeejay, thank you for being brave enough to post and I wish you luck with recovering the money,

I am not unsympathetic but how many times do we need to be told NOT to give any information over the phone OR follow any instructions given to us. These low-lives are very plausible and professional with their fake websites and glib phone calls. You should have put the phone down and called your bank on their number and spoken to someone there who would have told you it was a scam. We all need to be alert.

Didnt know if my previous post would work ( link to todays new report on Mail online ) but it has...

Get in touch with your bank OP, they will be able to help.

One man on how he fell for a scam and how to stop it mol.im/a/10296229 via dailym.ai/android

In todays Mail online...

Oh, I'm so sorry Marydoll that you got caught, but thanks for the warning. If it's any consolation I very nearly got caught out by the same scam Serendipity22 mentioned. Fight it out with your bank, they should refund you! It was £1,970 they were trying to scam out of me - it just didn't ring true. Why did the Police apparently want the money?

busybeejay, what a terrible thing to do to you.

Sparklefizz, a similar thing happened to me with Amex. I received an email about a fraudulent transaction and they asked me to contact them immediately on a certain number.

Instead, I phoned the number on the back of my Amex card and the first question I was asked, was my call about the fraud. It was actually genuine.
It turned out, someone had tried to buy pornographic DVDs in New York, using my card details.

That's really helpful GSM

Who's "she", the cat's mother?

So sorry to hear what happened busybeejay. Just goes to show how difficult these things are to spot sometimes.

Do let us know how it pans out.