Bogus TalkTalk reps keep customer on the line for six hours then fleeces him of £4,700

Paul Hirst, 58, received a phone call from a team of people claiming to be from TalkTalk who told him there was “something wrong” with his Internet and phone line.

The scam was so convincing, the tricksters hacked into Mr Hirst’s computer and were allegedly ‘clearing viruses’ while Mr Hirst sat at his screen and watched them work.

Eventually, the fake employees told Mr Hirst, from Huddersfield, they were refunding him £200 for inconvenience caused and persuaded him to give them his bank details.

Mr Hirst says he and his wife Linda, 64, have been left with a gaping hole in their finances.

Mr Hirst said: “We’re both devastated. It’s a massive chunk of money and it takes time to build it up.

“Money like this is hard to come by.

“They had our phone number, rang up and asked for me by name. They said I had multiple errors and viruses on my computer.

“They were very convincing and totally took me in. It’s my fault as well.”

Mr Hirst added: “We’ve actually been told by someone helping us with the case that it could be a disgruntled TalkTalk employee who was sacked and stole customer data before they left the company.

“We are not the only people who have been targeted by the scam and we think we’re part of a nationwide con.”

Following hours on the end of the phone, Mr Hirst thought the difficulties with his line were finally fixed when the scammers told him they were refunding him £200.

However, it was actually just a ploy to get him to give them a extortionate amount of money.

Mr Hirst said: “The man on the phone told me he was reimbursing me £200 and then told me he had made an error and had given me £5,200 by mistake.

“A ‘manager’ came on the phone to explain there had been a mistake and they needed me to send £5,000 back to them.

“They brought up what I thought was my online banking account onto my computer screen, which showed they had put in £5,000 too much.

“I’ve since learned from my bank that what I saw was probably a fake.”

The devious thieves then persuaded Mr Hirst to go to the Post Office and transfer the £5,000 back to them via Moneygram which he did straight away.

He said: “They wanted me to do it immediately before the end of the day. By the time I got back Linda realised something was wrong and I rang my bank and discovered I was missing £4,720.

“We now think they kept us on the line for so long so we couldn’t ring anybody else and check up on what they were doing.

“I just feel so stupid.”

Mr Hirst, who has been a TalkTalk customer for four years, feels let down by the company who refuse to speak to him about the problem.

Mr Hirst said: “TalkTalk has to claim some responsibility for this but they will not speak to us.

“I have rang up several times and I just get kept on hold. My wife was on hold for 35 minutes the other day.”

Mr and Mrs Hirst, who moved back from Spain four years ago where Mr Hirst worked on a caravan site, have reported the incident to West Yorkshire Police.

He said: “The police have said they will look into it, so has Action Fraud and we’ve reported it to Ofcom.

“They’ve all said they will look into it for us but we don’t know if anything will come of it.

“TalkTalk need to take responsibility for what’s happened.”

Mr Hirst revealed that he has taken a sledgehammer to his laptop because he is so scared of getting scammed again.

He said: “I’m petrified about what could happen to us next. I just wanted to get rid of my computer altogether.”

A TalkTalk spokesperson expressed their apologies.

He said: “We’re very sorry to hear that Mr Hirst has been targeted by criminals.

“Unfortunately, the reality is that the scams described would not have been possible without the customer providing confidential information to the scammers.

“We sympathise with Mr Hirst’s loss but the scammers had no access to any sensitive information about the customer and they clearly went to extraordinary measures to gain the customer’s trust.

“Phone and email scams are a serious and growing problem affecting companies and consumers across the UK.

“Figures from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) show that 58% of people received suspicious calls last year, a year on year rise of 17%.

“Additionally, research from the Money Advice Service last year showed that around eight scam calls are placed every second from fraudsters purporting to be from institutions such as banks, utilities companies and even HMRC.”