Nearly fell victim to a phishing scam.

[ElleLeopine]

Feeling quite shaken. Realised in the nick of time.

Also feeling very stupid 😕

How? Was it an email? What did it say? Hope you're OK.

Tell us more. I’m so glad you realised in time.

What kind of scam? How did they reel you in?

It was a text saying it was from my bank, that a direct debit had been set up, and if it wasn't me, to ring a number. Which I stupidly did.

They were very convincing, and I gave them literally all my card details. But at this point I was getting suspicious, and when they mentioned sending a code to my phone, I hung up and called the Nationwide customer service line.

They confirmed that it was a scam, and 1 minute after they cancelled my card the bastard scammers tried to take £1k from my account. And used it on ebay.

Phew that was lucky.. Ds was scammed 4k a few years ago. Took a while to get it back. Lesson learned.

I'm so relieved that it was stopped in time, but feeling so, so stupid. And angry. But mainly stupid.

Friend of mine had this the other week but it was a phone call and when she queried that they weren’t really her bank they said they’d send a text to her phone….which they did and they impersonated the actual banks number because the text they sent joined a previous chat from a few weeks ago which had been the bank. She doesn’t know how they managed that.

They were saying her account had been compromised and she needed to move all her money to a holding account and if she didn’t do it and the money was stolen she wouldn’t be reimbursed as she’d refused to do as told. She told them she wanted to ring the fraud line and they were adamant there wasn’t time, she said she came very close to moving it.

Awww don't feel stupid. It could happen to anyone. Most people think it won't happen to them, and there's no way that they could fall for it. But when you're not expecting it, it's much easier to fall for it.

I have never, ever fell for any scam. And I honestly don't think I would. But you can never say never - because I've nearly fallen for a scam a couple of times. I'm sorry for what happened to you, and I hope you're okay now. And I'm really glad you didn't lose anything in the end. Bet you will be well on your guard next time. Eh?!

Don’t feel stupid, my friend is a previous police officer and also a financial advisor and nearly fell for it. She said she wouldn’t have believed that she could come so close. They are so convincing.

That is scary!

Absolutely! I will be so on my guard now!

Thank you for being so kind!

I had this with scammers for Vodafone. They managed to send me a text which tagged onto the end of my actual Vodafone text messages.

They changed my email address and passwords etc but I realised it was a scam when they asked for the passcode they'd just sent. The passcode said "don't share with anyone" so I refused.

They're so clever it's scary.

When I called the number, the initial message mirrored exactly what a normal bank would say. And when they were speaking to me, they were kind and concerned, and confirming that no one else could have access to my card!