scammed out of £525.000

I have had the "domestic appliance" insurance call every day for around the last 5 or 6 weeks.

I got myself onto the 'possible mark' list by answering questions purporting to be from a market researcher. They asked about the make and age of my washing machine. I mistakenly named the wrong brand. A month later they telephoned offering to extend 'your ten year warranty' on a machine that I do not own.

I just had to reply Y or N to the texts which was fine, no account (or any other pertinent ) details were given either end.

So, another time, you may answer Y or N then get a follow up call about the text that you already 'know' is genuine and who knows what you might be led into.

Or maybe you're too clever for that but not everyone is and this is not a good practice from banks & card companies.

How awful …was so sad to hear this. The scammers can be very convincing.

Kate1949

Same here MissA. I was told my bank never send automated messages with 'Press 1, press 2' etc. So when I got one telling me there had been fraudulent activity on my account, I ignored it. I got another one so phone the number on my bank card. They said 'Yes that was us'.

Me too.
When I complained, separately from dealing with the problem, they said "We'll make a note not to contact you that way."

I told them they shouldn't be contacting anyone in that way.

I almost got caugot by the WhatsApp con but thought if my daughter had a problem that I had to transfer money to her surely she'd have asked her husband!!. I do hundreds of online competitions, I have an email address just for them so it's great fun getting emails to that account, I know they are all scams/cons

Yes I've had those too- the phone 'chuggers' from charities- trying to make me pay a regular or higher donation, after a one-off payment mostly, ringing almost constantly especially in run up to xmas, trying to tug at folks heartstrings etc, i had to just tell them straight, stop ringing &remove my number, if i want to donate ill just pay one- off, when i can afford, as i have been, but now they just come in the post instead!?

I thought exactly the same. She’d had so many warnings but still went ahead. I’m surprised the bank gave her anything back, let alone £50K.

What worried me about the £150 charge was also that my bank had not even bothered to check that it WAS me actually making the order! I've now recently changed to a different bank, who send alerts each time a transaction is made.?

Pammiel & MissAdventure often the callers, urging you to increase your direct debit or make a larger donation, are companies employed by the charity to ring people who donate. They will take a percentage of your increased donation not just once, but from every payment you make. This is also true of the 'Chuggers' in the High Streets, although they don't seem to be quite so plentiful now.

I went on my bank app to transfer my son a (mere) fiver as he'd bought something i needed, while he was out- I'm glad i did- i checked the rest while i was on there & noticed a payment of £150 for just eat- i knew i hadn't been on there for a long while as i had either rung direct & paid cash if we had wanted an occasional takeaway, or used a different app- and we would'nt have needed THAT much worth for just 3 of us anyway! I rang bank and they asked a few questions but in end must have proved it wasn't me, as must have been too far for it to be my order! The money was returned next day- and i cancelled my just eat account- but if i hadn't noticed i shudder to think what would have been charged next- or maybe my whole lot transferred? Usually i don't check my account regularly and it was lead up to christmas too. I will be checking more often in future.Even bona fide companies can be guilty too of overcharging etc.I had £72 deducted recently as a contact lens company had re- activated my subscription which i had not asked for, as i had only wanted a trial of new ones at p&p cost only.(which they also charged twice!) Its taken me nearly 2months to get the £72 back.?Be Vigilant.

^I had to have very serious words with the salvation army and tell them to leave my mum alone.
She had made a one off donation, then they were virtually hounding her.^

I had a similar experience with a National children’s charity. I made a one off donation via my mobile phone. They then rang me several times trying to get me to set up a monthly direct debit. When I refused, one caller even accused me of ‘not liking children’! It certainly put me off donating ever again!

It’s not as if there are no warnings an information. My sympathy is limited. What makes me so mad that if you are a victim of criminal fraud by family members who are executors of a will, the police don’t want to know. It is a position in which you are more vulnerable than victims of scams and the only redress you can get is having a spare £35k to personally do the job that the police are supposed to do to protect you.

BIG WARNING for everyone... I like to think I'm pretty savvy about scams / phishing etc. But I got caught by a message 'pinging' me for having been in contact with someone with Omicron. The link was to an NHS website where I was asked to pay 99p for postage for a PCR test - except, however convincing it looked, it was NOT the NHS. The PCR test kit never turned up, but my card was used for McDonalds takeaway meals (I'm vegan) and taxis, then the scammer tried to purchase from Liberty Ltd - a Nigerian corporation - for the sum of £970 +. Fortunately, my bank was on the case and rang me. I had the minor charges refunded instantly. The large sum had already been disallowed as it had seemed suspicious. Please be super, super vigilant. How careful we have to be these days!!!

I opened a new bank account to make the most of the higher interest they were paying. After a test bank transfer of £5 I attempted to move the rest of my savings only to find the original account frozen. It was a bit annoying spending a Sunday afternoon on the phone to the bank but their security checks were vigorous and only when they were convinced I wasn’t being coerced into transferring the money did they unlock the account. Nice to know they were looking out for me

I have watched several episodes of "For Love or Money" morning time on BBC. It is about older people who have become lonely either losing a husband /wife through death and decide to take the plunge on dating website. The documentary
shows how many older people are taken in and part with huge amounts of money they think they are talking to and having video calls with a real person but it is only a scammer. By the time they decide to confide in older adult children they have been scammed for thousands of pounds and most of them will be unable to get any money back. I think many of these people must be so lonely and just latch on to anyone that promises them a relationship it is despicable of these con artists/fraudsters to clean out their bank accounts and do that to someone. I would never trust anyone on these sites as
you do not know who these people are.

She was actually pregnant with his baby.

Given the TV programmes, radio programmes and warnings from our banks, I am astonished that anyone is STILL falling for these scams. I just don't know what is behind such stupidity - greed? ignorance? what?? I get phone calls, texts and emails from scammers - I always ask exactly who they are and why they are calling, and my response is always f**k off. I have to say that taking a fairly aggressive stance has lessened those calls a lot. I call my bank or go online - NEVER click through or respond directly. I don't have much money, and certainly no fat pension pot, but if I did (eg. half a million pounds) I'd be even MORE careful and less trusting about calls from my bank (or anyone else) asking me to move money. Really - do people deserve what they get??

I must be in the "suckers list", after having been "relieved" of my savings of £3000 recently.The criminals then had a shopping spree in Rotterdam with MY money.These people are very clever and are professionells. Targetting eighty year old ladies mostly.I am not expecting to get back any money.

I've received texts from my bank's fraud department twice, checking whether CC purchases I had made were genuine. I just had to reply Y or N to the texts which was fine, no account (or any other pertinent ) details were given either end.
It was checking if it was indeed me who had made the purchases, (from BA) -- and I had. They check if it's large amounts and because fraudulent plane ticket sales, using fake websites, are a thing.
(And British Airways has indeed been hacked in the past... )
I was also told to look up the bank's own fraud phone numbers independently to check on the texts. Which I did, too.
My purchases were legitimate but the bank held up the CC payment for a little while during this process, then it all went through. Quite reassuring.
So some texts may be legit but any genuine organization will not object to customers making independent checks.

It’s all too easy for charities to pester you, if you make one of those supposedly one-off £3 or £5 donations by phone. Dh once did it and had no end of pester calls.

Before I had a smartphone I would donate online if I wanted to, and would never give a phone number - I do the same now and also avoid dishing out my phone number to anyone when buying online.

If any website does insist, I just make one up. ?

Poor woman but fancy having that sort of money in a general account that could be shifted so easily. She could have split it up into ISA's.

My mother had a regular payment to the Salvation Army and other charities (she could afford them, there was no problem with that) and when she died I contacted them all to say that the payments would stop and why. The Salvation Army took longest to convince. Although I think they are an excellent charity, I donate to them either in cash in the street or anonymously!

Serendipity22

I had a WhatsApp message which began Hi mum, I dropped my old phone in water and now it doesnt work ( or words to that effect ) I have an invoice to pay, can you lend me the money -, blah blah blah. So considering I have 2 AC, it could have been from either, BUT my radar was on red alert by the wording on the message.

I knew my DD hadn't changed her number, so that left my DS, like i say, the wording set my radar off.

Anyway, to cut long story short, they didn't get a penny from me, but some poor, unsuspecting person would have fallen for the cock 'n' bull message....

Makes my blood boil

Similar thing happened to me. For a moment I almost fell for it but then I knew my daughter wouldn’t ask me for money, and if she did she’d do it face to face.
I phoned her from my landline to double check it wasn’t her and of course it was a scam.

MissAdventure

I had to have very serious words with the salvation army and tell them to leave my mum alone.
She had made a one off donation, then they were virtually hounding her.

My mum had the same problem with a well know charity a few years ago. She had made a one off donation for a small amount and it triggered numerous calls from them asking for substantial donations. Thankfully she hadn’t paid them anything. I found out what was happening a short time later after she was diagnosed with dementia, at which point I called the charity and told them she was in no position to make donations and to please stop calling. I followed this up in writing, telling them that if they made contact again I would take legal action as I considered it harassment. The calls stopped, and I got a very apologetic letter confirming that her name had been taken off the contact lists their operators worked from. I was quite shocked at the tactics employed by what I had considered a reputable organisation.