Have you ever met anyone who’s been scammed out of money?

DH £800 flight ticket with a fake travel agent.

My teenage son with his first bank card. They cloned his card, not once, not twice, not three times, you gussed it four times in as many months. In fact the last card hadn’t even been delivered and it was used hundreds of miles away. The bank refunded all the monies. I suspect it was someone from the bank

My lovely, previously switched on 90 year old Dad. Classic con. Roofer knocked at door said working in street noticed problem with his roof persuaded him to drive to bank to get cash to pay for work .No work done. £800 Never seen again.Police were very supportive but nothing could be done. I was SO SO angry that my Dad had become a target

Many of my friends along with members of my family were scammed out of £400-£1000 each by a so called friends DH.

Turned out they weren't the only ones.

Police were involved and they both left the country.

So called friend came back recently when he was arrested in the country they moved to for you guessed it...... fraud!

A middle aged divorced man I know invested about £60k in a get rich quick scheme on the advise of a v attractive and much younger woman he had met in a bar and to whom he became engaged after meeting just once and lots of loving texts. Funnily enough he never saw woman or money again. What goes through these men's minds? It beggars belief.

My mum was contacted on her landline by scammers saying they were from Amazon or something of the sort and trying to prevent fraud and asked for bank details etc. My mum fell for it and would've handed said bank details over but she was blind and couldn't read the security number on her card. Luckily she called me to ask what to do and I told her to put the phone down and nothing was taken. My mum was a very sharp no nonsense woman back in the day but her age and disabilities had made her vulnerable. Fucking cunts preying on old people.

Unsure if this falls under scam but after my DGF died my DGM reinvested a lot of their investments with the same financial advisor they had always used. When going back to him she found he had done a flit a while previously and everything of hers was gone. She was too embarrassed to mention it to anyone as she felt she had let my DGF down so did not chase anything up and just lost her money. Was late 90s and around £20,000. Luckily she could afford to lose it but the guilt she felt was horrendous.

Yep, that stereotype is long gone although of course lots of older people are still victims of scammers.

I know an account who lost over 100k in a bitcoin scam.

I know one person (self-employed professional) who was scammed by her secretary out of her practice account. It went to court. The money was all spent so no hope getting it back.

And another, a consultant doctor, who was scammed by his cleaning lady. He had recently separated acrimoniously and assumed it was his ex wife eking revenge via the joint savings. The cleaning lady got a new conservatory, and bought her son a motorbike.

Both in the tens of thousands.

a female relative, widowed, desperately lonely and vulnerable, got involved with romance scam.

My dad was nearly scammed from someone pretending to be from talk talk. They were very insistent he transferred them some money via western union that day. He was going along with it and asked his neighbour to give him a lift to the post office , and the neighbour realised it was a scam.
Another friend was scammed out of 10k which was all their savings, I can't remember exactly how, it was some scheme were they were persuaded to invest but I can't recall how they were contacted

It really opened my eyes working in fraud. Scammers are absolutely ruthless, we often get the scammers trying to call us, pretending to be the customer!

Did the neighbours dad get his money back? Might not be a scam but might fall under coercion. In my world this would possibly be refunded back to the customer but we are credit cards so not sure if bank accounts fall under the same terms.

I just binge watched Cold Call on Netflix this weekend. If anyone’s interested it’s a 4 part drama series about a woman who was scammed out of the money she made on a house sale (80K) by someone pretending to be from her bank.

I work in fraud and this is a common scam and people do fall victim to it.
Mum, I lost my phone.
Mum replies, whose phone you texting from?
Scammer replies saying mate has lent them one and they are in need of some cash and ask if they can bank transfer them some cash.
Unfortunately some people do the transfer without checking as they are just worried about their kid.

.

Neighbour’s dad sent loads of money to an animal charity. A real charity but they kept sending letters begging for more cash and he donated about 50000 pounds in the end, his savings. Not a scam but not right in my book.

My best friend was scammed out of 10000 Euros, i.e. first three months’ rent, for a flat that didn’t exist. They were very clever and she was very desperate as flats are so hard to find here.

I don't know anyone personally but I work in fraud and we see it all too often sadly.

I did, many years ago by a driving instructor - only about £250,but it was a lot to me then.
I didn't get it back, but got huge satisfaction from reporting him for VAT and tax evasion - saw it reported in the local press about a year later.

Just read another pps post about vouchers - my dads was Google Play vouchers