Clever fraudsters had my number... and fleeced me for £5,500

Andy Welch didn’t think he was the sort of person who would fall for con artists’ tricks, but an elaborate bank scam proved him wrong.
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Opening a newspaper recently, a headline about rental fraud caught my eye.

A new survey by 192.com revealed that one in 10 people have fallen victim to rental scams, with corrupt landlords making £755m a year by taking deposits from unsuspecting would-be tenants for properties that either don’t exist or are already occupied.

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New scams are cropping up on a weekly, if not daily, basis, whether it’s cold callers pretending they’re from your utilities company or fake emails claiming to be from HM Revenue & Customs asking for your bank details because you’re owed a tax rebate.

It’s also much easier to fall victim to the fraudsters than you might think and I learned the hard way. Happily watching TV at home one Sunday morning, I received a call from “Visa Card Services”.

The person on the other end told me there’d been a number of fraudulent transactions on my account since midnight, adding up to about £1,100. I’d never heard of Visa Card Services before, but then, I’d never had money stolen like this before.

The caller confirmed the last withdrawal I’d made – which reassured me that they were genuine – then gave me a reference number and told me to hang up then ring the number on the back of my bank card.

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I followed his instructions, and spoke to someone who knew all about the supposed fraud. I was told that, apparently, my card had been cloned at the ATM I’d used, and then used to purchase items from the Apple Store. The person from “HSBC’s card protection department” now helping me had all my details – full name, date of birth and, crucially, my address.

When he said a courier was on the way to collect my bank card for further examination, I initially flinched at the idea, but he explained that it was needed to properly analyse the chip.

It all seemed quite legitimate – after all, I’d called the bank myself. So when I was told to type my PIN number into the keypad of my phone, I did.

Later that afternoon, I had another call telling me they’d now received my bank card, and that the money I’d lost would be back in my account in a few days.

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It never materialised and a few days later, I called the bank, this time from my mobile, and explained to the person on the other end what had happened. It was then the voice on other end said: “But Mr Welch, your cards haven’t been reported stolen.”

The people I’d been dealing with initially, trusting with all my details, were in fact the criminals. The police were very helpful. Once I told them the story, they went through the likely series of events that led to the theft. By then, they’d taken around £5,500 from me. It all started, they think, on the Saturday night – the evening before the first phone call – when one of the gang will have watched me take money from a cash machine, which is how they’d obtained details of my last transaction.

Most likely, they then probably also followed me home, making a note of my address. The scammers might also have had a dossier on me, containing other details. There’s a huge black market – or grey market, as it’s not always illegal, just immoral – with companies selling people’s personal information to other companies.

As for the “legitimate” call to the bank I’d made, to the number on the back of my card, well, credit where it’s due, what happened here is pretty clever...

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Due to the way the phone system works in the UK, when somebody calls a landline, it’s only the caller who can end the call. If the receiver hangs up, but the caller doesn’t, the line is still technically open. So when I hung up, then dialled the bank’s number, a fraudster was actually still on the line, waiting to pick up. He first played a dial tone, then a ringtone, making me think it was a normal call.

Fortunately, I got all my money back within about 10 days, although I did have to get new bank accounts and cards and, belt and braces, I’ve since changed my passwords for just about everything I have a log-on for.

It’s easy to think there’s no harm done, but really, we’re all paying for this. The elevated bank charges and high interest rates we all pay on loans and credit cards fund this industry and, as the statistics show, scams are happening all the time.

I’m now on my guard more than ever, and I’d like to think it won’t ever happen to me again. But then, I thought that before – I never thought I’d be the sort of person to fall for a scam like this.

You might think that too. But, be cautious. Not everyone out there’s as nice as you are.

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