Just got scammed out of almost 1k

[BonneMamanAbricot]

Please be so careful of phone calls from your bank. Always call them back, as caller ID can be faked. My actual bank said they had never seen this scam. They duplicated everything, all the spiels, the robot connecting voice, the hold music.

Second month of being paid after 5 months of no income. Back to nothing again. FFS.

Can your bank get your money back?!

That’s awful sorry that’s happened also happened to my mom last month they knew everything even her direct debits luckily I was with her and the guy was asking her to move her money to a new bank account they’d set up and alarm bells rang for me and I told her to hang out when we phoned the bank they said they had never called and would never tell her to move her own money to a bank account it’s so easy to be scammed now it’s truly awful

So what did your pretend banl actually say to make you hand over the money?

Probably not as scammers usually move money out of their accounts into others after withdrawing. Banks can only get the payment back if it remains in the original account that they transferred it into

@Elvisbaby321 so lucky you were with her and could stop it. I was with friends and family as well but no one realised it was a scam, it seemed so legitimate :(

What was the reason they gave for you to move money out of your account?

You've learned the hard way that any unexpected contact by the bank, HMRC etc should be met with “I can’t talk right now I’ll call you back”, and then call the “caller” to check if it’s actually them.

They had my basic info and ran a list of 'fake' transactions by me which I obviously didn't recognise. Then said he was from the fraud team and would open an investigation. He said the scammer had gained access to my online and mobile accounts so he would need to freeze the accounts and re-verify my details as the correct details for the account. He told me he would never ask for my personal information (the spiel) but asked for account number etc to 'verify' the account.

At this stage I was out with my kids and frazzled and distracted so just wanted to give the bank what they needed to resolve the issue. I suppose a part of me did sense a red flag but I didn't want to lose time by hanging up and verifying. Which was a mistake but the combination of authenticity and urgency was very effective.

I gave him the details and he gave me a code that he said was my verification code for mobile banking, to ensure mine was the only number on the account. I then got a call from my actual bank and gave this code (I didn't realise this was a payment authorisation code).

The scammer then said that, due to my phone number being verified on the account, I would now start to receive payment notifications that the scammers had attempted, but not to worry as these were delayed and had already been blocked. He also told me to delete my online banking app until the fraud investigation was through.

Multiple payment notifications then came up and it was only later when I had time to think that I rang my actual bank. Heart dropped to the fucking floor.

It's obvious looking back but at the time it all seemed believable.

Report Fraud has just closed the case due to lack of evidence

Sorry, I’m probably very thick, but did they scam you with your account number?

did your bank confirm they couldnt reverse the transaction?

This scam is shown all the time on BBC Scam Intercepters.

If your account has been compromised the bank would never call you. They’d fix it and refund as it would be their error.

But what you've described is exactly how all bank frauds happen.
I'm a bit surprised you didn't realise while it was going on.

They asked me for my acct number and sort code to 'verify' my account. This is where I felt the doubt but didn't want to hang up and delay 'securing' my account. Also part of me probably felt that I didn't want to be rude or difficult, which is wrong but ingrained.

My actual bank said they had never seen this scam

They can't have said that.
This is exactly how bank scams always go.

It surprises me that your bank would say they have never seen this type of scam before. I work in fraud and this is one of the most common scams I come across.

That didn't take them long.
Surely they see this scam so often that the evidence is obviously there?

Don't know what to say...that's what they said, no reason for me to say otherwise. They also said the scammer had moved extremely quickly to transfer the money to different accounts.

Yes, when I asked what my chances were of recovering the money they said they couldn't say as this was a new scam. I don't know if they meant specific aspects were new, the degree of sophistication in imitating the bank communications, or what

Op, if your bank hasn’t seen this kind of scam before, then they should refund you. Unless you were extremely careless (and you weren’t, they were just very clever) then your bank has a duty of care as it holds your money. Ask for a refund and if they say no, go as far as the Financial Ombudsman to decide what’s reasonable. I don’t think this is that common scam everyone refers to.

The most important thing to remember is your bank will never, ever call you. Ever.

If someone calls you and says they’re from your bank, please tell them you are busy and will call them back. And then ring your bank on their official number - which will be on the back of your bank card or on your banking app screen.

Please remember this and tell this to everyone you know.

There are loads of other scams, of course, but this is still important to remember as it’s unfortunately still quite a popular and effective scam.

Wow that’s horrible. I hope you can get the money back - unlikely but you never know. Don’t feel bad about it. I know it’s stressful but I know a lot of people who have been victims of fraud and it’s not something to be ashamed of or feel silly for. The fraudsters are the only ones who should feel shame.

Never give out your O PT code to anybody the bank staff will never ask you for this

It's definitely not a new scam, not in my world anyway, unfortunately we see this too often. I can only assume that the agent you were speaking to had never come across this particular scam before. From your description, it is common and not new.

I disagree that you shouldn't get your money back, banks should offer the same protection as credit cards.

Grateful that I work with a credit card company as it offers relief to customers who have fallen victim to fraud.

I got scanned out of a very small amount couple of hundred but still Barclays refunded it within the hour.

This exact scenario happened to me tep years ago. Lost £2000. Fraud team, covered number...phoned me over a period of 3 weeks telling me of fraudulent transactions, then at the end the verification number etc. It was HALIFAX. The fraudsters even set me up an appointment with my bank branch. As you say looking back its soo obvious but not at the time. I would consider myself well educated. It was the fake caller I'd that got me. I actually called the real fraud team and got my money back (Well not actually back but I was reimbursed). There's a newish law which allows this if they think you were genuinely frauded.

So sorry this has happened OP, you must be so upset. Keep on at your bank to get your money back. They designed the system that allows this.