To think he shouldn't have fallen for this?!

[BloodyScammers]

DH was scammed recently. Called me at work to say he had a call from credit card company to say attempts made on card. Told him I had heard of scammers using this to con you to give info so he should call card company. He did, using online number, and they said attempts made but nothing went through.

He then gets a call from 'same company' saying there were further attempts. The number showing on his phone matches the number of the company he called earlier so he trusts them.

They then say that another card (main bank credit card) involved and attempts made on that card too and in order to trace the scammers he should authorise the attempted purchases to close off the process in order to allow the trace.

Now, at this point would you not be saying 'hold up'?!!

DH goes ahead and authorises the payments via his app and the penny drops when the caller disappears.

Soooo, DH has spent the past 2 days trying to sort the mess out - cancelled cards, online banking, reported to police, given statement.
Two transactions have gone through so I think we've lost about £12k so far and another one pending although I don't see how that could still go through given the report of fraud.

I am so fed up of the whole thing and wonder if I am being unreasonable? Perhaps I just have a very high level of suspicion but I think I would have gone into reverse gear the moment they mentioned authorising the payment. I would have at least hung up and tried calling the card company to make sure it was legit rather than believe the caller.

@HotPenguin - trust me, the bank knows. He has been in overdrive since to the point where it's driving me mad.

We will now have to live with him giving the rest of the family officious advice about how not to be scammed 🤣😩

@ThreeLittleDots

If the caller ID on my phone matched the number I'd called myself after getting it off the official bank website then I think I would have probably fallen for it

But we all know caller ID is easily faked... don't we??!!

I didn't! How do they fake the same number as the bank??

Oh no that's so frustrating!
If it's the same bank I'd still try and argue they should've put blocks on all associated accounts/cards in his name but I don't know how successful you'd be...

Definitely worth a try.

@CorrBlimeyGG

Thousands and thousands of people get scammed, confidence tricksters are very convincing. You could try to be understanding, rather than calling him a fool.

He has been a fool in falling for authorising payments of thousands of pounds without stopping to contact the bank himself.

What would have been the worst case if he had not authorised the payments? Could he have been scammed if he had hung up?

It's all very easy us saying with hindsight that we wouldn't have fallen for it, but put on the spot, having to make a quick decision...I would say that some people who thought they wouldn't be daft enough to fall for such a tactic actually would. Scams work on thousands of savvy people every year.

@AwaAnBileYerHeid - I understand that especially when fearing fraud you might make poor decisions. But wouldn't your gut instinct warn you over authorising payments to assist tracking a fraudster?

Maybe in the situation I would have fallen for it, who knows.

I've told my girls if ever faced with this later in life - trust no one (even if they call and say it's your nan and it sounds like your nan 🤣) - always make the call yourself.

Thousands of people get scammed all the time. The mother of the man who invented the world wide web got scammed! Yanbu to feel frustrated but it can happen to literally anyone!

I completely understand your frustration, it's a very large amount of money and given he authorised the money the bank may take a tough line.

However...in his defence, the scammers are very plausible and if they catch you off guard or busy with work it can be too easy to click on an app. We are conditioned by modern technology to act quickly.

Despite so much awareness many people are scammed and the only advice is to take time before actioning, literally walk away for 15 mins to clear your head BUT the scammers create urgency which drives people to act more recklessly.

Hopefully you can see that the scammers are at fault not your dh

@Fireflygal - hard but I will try to.

£12 Grand.

Holy shit.

@BloodyScammers, but I would equally be furious for some considerable time 😀

I didn't! How do they fake the same number as the bank

VoiP: www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/scams/phone-spoof-scam

this has more info:

www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/number-spoofing-scams/

I'm honestly shocked that people haven't heard of this - it's been going on for years!

If you are calling your bank back if you receive a potential scam call, please make sure you call back on a different phone line, as well has calling the number on the banks official website or correspondence.
Scammers can keep the line open and even play recorded messages to make you think you're speaking to the bank, even though you're still talking to the original scammer.

Caller id can be faked and they can also hijack your phone line and when you think that you are calling someone else they wait for you to finish dialling and then answer pretending to be whoever you have called.

The best thing to do is call from a different phone and cancel and freeze everything.

Hopefully this has opened the eyes of some on here so this doesn't happen to them.

It's awful to have to be so distrustful but it's the world we live in now.

I've never been scammed but I know people who have - people I consider sharp, on it, not naive at all.

The thing with being scammed is that they catch you in a vulnerable, stressed or absent-minded moment and are very plausible. Recounting what happened, everyone who's been scammed beats themselves up for being stupid and not seeing the obvious warning signs. Hearing their stories I can't imagine falling for it - if I have my wits about me. But if you're panicked about money disappearing from your account you already have fewer wits about you.

A small part of me does think, how could you be so stupid, that's so obviously a scam. But my friends were already thinking that and they didn't need me rubbing it in - just sympathy. It's like being assaulted, really - except you've been mugged mentally rather than physically.

@gannett - I think I have a very low bar of distrust. I'm also not too polite to hang up or say I'm not comfortable with something.

I totally get what you say about people being panicked about money disappearing from their account but the request to authorise the payment wasn't even suggested as stopping money from disappearing from the account it was dressed up as trying to trace the fraudster. eh?

You would think that maybe he would have called me to ask what I thought since I had warned him earlier?

@AFuturisticalSound - In fact I heard yesterday about fantastic new service where you dial 159 when you get one of these calls and it connects you to your bank so they can tell you not to be do daft.

I heard that too - Martin Lewis?

159 - the leading diagonal on a phone pad!
He also advised using a different phone (to the one the potential scammers called.)

Out of curiosity what age group is DH?

Only saying because people in my age group I would bet 100 percent wouldn't of even taken a second to realise they were being scammed

I'm afraid I got caught by this scam too . I'm a professional, I subscribe to Which and I used to work for a bank. I still fell for it - the guy was very plausible and constantly distracting me. The only things I did right was refuse to give him the number of my second card (he had full details of my main one) and call the bank afterwards to check he was ok. He wasn't. The bank were lovely about it. Next time I must call them instead of speaking to the fraudster

I consider myself quite sharp on these things but I’ve been nearly caught out a couple of times. It’s frustrating but it’s not going to help to be mad at him

[quote BloodyScammers]@gannett - I think I have a very low bar of distrust. I'm also not too polite to hang up or say I'm not comfortable with something.

I totally get what you say about people being panicked about money disappearing from their account but the request to authorise the payment wasn't even suggested as stopping money from disappearing from the account it was dressed up as trying to trace the fraudster. eh?

You would think that maybe he would have called me to ask what I thought since I had warned him earlier?[/quote]
I like to think that of myself too, believe me! I do think I'm "too smart" to fall for that shit. (Well, I think I'm too rude, really, I'm quick to hang up on scold callers too.)

I also know that the people I know who've fallen for it are not stupid - they were just scared, panicked, worried about money already, in a bad place. And ultimately I don't know how I'd react if I was actually in that situation.

I came close. Scarily close. I was a tax accountant for near on a decade. I should have known better. In my defence I was very sick and the prior day had to put my horse down due to a very traumatic paddock accident that took the vets 3-4hrs to arrive at. So I really wasn't in a good place. Fortunately for me I'd received a letter from the tax office that week. Whilst scamster kept me on the landline (very insistent I didn't hang up) I found the letter, made an excuse about needing to use the bathroom and went to a different room to call the tax office. Of course it was a scam and the tax office was very lovely to talk to.

What your husband can do to help others is post on a site for random calls. I googled the number afterwards and saw comments on a site re scam. So I added my own comments for the number that called me and there were a number of subsequent responses saying they'd had exactly the same spiel I got. If it saves someone else from being scammed, it's a good thing.

I'm really sorry for all the stress you're going through, it sounds awful. I'd go easy on him, though. I like to think I wouldn't authorise those payments (how did he do it, exactly?) but these people are professionals and can be very convincing and even forceful. They know the psychological tricks to use.

@DrSbaitso - thank you. Have calmed down quite a bit. It does make me sad though that we have to live life being so distrustful.