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.

I cant believe people still fall for this crap.

My bank rings me from time to time. When I refuse to answer security questions, they ask me to ring back on the phone number printed on the back of my credit card.

Agree
The banks (and ombudsman) really need to stop helping people who fall for obvious scams. At some point personal responsibility has to come into it. The scams, while people post things like this alerting others, are just the same old obvious scams that have been around for years. Banks shouldn't have to keep taking the fall for stupidity and I think the days of the ombudsman bailing people out are numbered because people should be taking some sort of responsibility for obvious stupidity.

Don't be daft, we give our account number and sort code when setting up direct debits or other bill payments, also for receiving payments from things like lotteries and cashback accounts.

Scams are not obvious they are often very sophisticated and clever. I hope you or your loved ones never have to go through it.

I hate these fake calls. Horrible scammers. I tell them. "Thank you so much, for letting me know about the suspicious activity. My bank is close by so I will quickly go into the branch to get everything sorted out". They hang up immediately after that.

Are you on HRT? Going on estrogen gel and cycling progesterone helped me almost overnight.

As a warning; Do not accept a bank call from them to you EVER! Even if it is a genuine fraud query they will be happy for you to call them back and be securely identified.

@BonneMamanAbricot , I hope you are ok.

Yes, but you call them, rather than them calling you. Big difference.

This is absolutely correct my bank phoned me on my landline to query potentially fraudulent transactions. I said I was going to hang up and then called them back on my mobile using the number on my debit card. This is how actual banks deal with genuine fraud!

The bank will give you the money back i’m sure. A friend of mine, who is very naive sent 5k to a ‘romantic scammer’. I can’t believe she fell for it as it was the most obvious scam going. Man sends facebook friend request, spends 3wks chatting and flattering her, then says he is sending her some money. But oh dear it’s stuck in customs and needs money to release.. you know the rest. I was astounded the bank gave her the money back, as I really felt like she had behaved so recklessly. Hopefully you get your money back, but yes in future do not take calls like this, the bank never contacts you in this way. Guess you know that now, but it is always easy in hindsight.

Against bank fraud???

Why did you answer the phone in the first place?

Sorry you've been scammed, I work in a Bank and do call Customers, some will refuse to speak to me (fantastic IMO) others will try to give me information before I've even gone through security. I see so much Fraud it is heartbreaking - weirdly the elderly seem a lot more on the ball.

What on earth does this mean? Why did someone answer their phone when it rang?

Banks are insured up the wazoo.

They absolutely should be able to get your money back for you, @BonneMamanAbricot one way or another.

In the US, you’re only liable for $50 if you call the bank right away. You should have some protections in the UK.

This infuriates me on your behalf.
I’m so very, very sorry. ❤️

I'm so sorry OP. There are some despicable people out there. Xxx

Really sorry OP. It is absolutely gutting when you have worked so hard for your money. These scam people are disgusting.

This isn’t true, banks do make calls. Santander called me when I made two withdrawals of cash from my account, to check it was me and not somebody else either access to my account. I’ll admit it did unnerve me, and after the call ended I telephoned Santander from the number I found on their website to check it was genuine and they confirmed it was.

So you have them the code the bank gave you?

I didn’t realise scammers could scam you with just your account number and sort code. Scary stuff. Did they make bank transfers?

Banks do call you, I got a call from NatWest after making a large transaction abroad.

The important thing is to remember they won’t ask you for passwords or things like One-Time Passcode (OTP).

They should be doing more to help their customers in the first place. I'm with Starling and whenever I am asked to authorise a payment, I have to go to the app, read a declaration, and authorise it. As part of that it specifically says either "We have never called you about this merchant" or, if I've called them recently, "You last called us on DD/MM/YY at HH:MM".

If it's a transfer, I have to say why I'm sending money, if I've met the person in person before, whether I've been asked to move money by someone, if they are saying they have an emergency, or if I've been asked to set up an account for the purpose of the payment.

If it's a large payment, I have to tell them, with free text, why I'm paying large amounts of money. Someone (or their AI system) analyses it and decides whether to authorise the payment.

I was happily chatting to the very nice man who called me from my credit card company the other day. It was only when the new card didn't turn up - the old one had been compromised you see and had to be cancelled as someone had been trying to make large purchases on it but luckily the credit card company's fraud team, of which he was part, had spotted them and were good enough to call me to check before rejecting them and issuing me with a new card - that I realised I had been a fecking idiot and that he was the scammer. No harm done luckily but could have been so different. You think it will never happen to you but just a momentary lapse of concentration and they're in and they've got you. Bastards.