To ask you to beware of this scam posing as Virginmedia?

[bellaiceberg]

Happened to a relative this morning. She's been going through stress and isn't a confident internet user, so sadly became a victim.

The scammers contacted her via landline first, already knowing she had accounts with Virgin for internet and mobile. She was told there was criminal activity in the area concerning routers (??) and was asked to verify info for a security check.
Being flustered she went along with it, and of course can't understand now how she was so easily led.
Was asked to give router number/details, the was told to put the phone down and pick up her mobile. The woman 'accessed' her mobile and spent about an hour confusing her, asking her to download a security app, and asking her to read out numbers over the phone repeatedly until she was nearly crying.

Oddly, and I can't sufficiently explain this, the person managed to gain access to her mobile and take it over remotely. She told relative she could see in the room via the camera. This struck me as really weird but I'm not very well up on scams. Sadly relative supplied her with driving license details and was asked to hold up the phone in front of her face, which then took a photo of her.
She was told all of this was a security measure and would protect her router from criminals :(
I can barely process any of this, but suffice to say 10K is now gone from her bank account, thankfully managed to stop it before taking more. She has reported it to the police and fraud in London, and has been told to contact CIFAF.

It seems the criminals have bank accounts globally and this is happening a lot right now in the UK. I have no more info on it yet but would like to tell people to be aware of it for themselves and relatives.

What was really frightening for her was that later, hours after the call, she was driving to the bank with her phone switched off, and she claims the woman (scammer) began asking her to talk again and download another app, as if she still had remote control of the phone. How is this even possible? It all sounds insane to me, I just can't get my head around it.
Is this common?

Sorry forgot to add: the scammer had a non-english accent and said her name was Nancy Wilson. She also said a technician was going to call tomorrow to change the router as she had evidence that my relative's router was already 'corrupted'.
She said the technician's name was Bob Wilson and gave his security number (all in an effort to sound legit).
Relative laughed and asked was it her husband and the scammer said 'oh no sorry I meant Bob Wilkinson'.

If she hasn't already, she needs to do a factory reset on her phone and all the IT equipment in her home!

Sounds horrendous.

will tell her thanks! I did tell her to report to virgin mobile and ask them what to do, too.

She was very upset and difficult to talk to on the phone (naturally) so im struggling to get all the facts as yet.

Im wondering if they took her photo so as to open a new bank account in her name and then transfer her money to it.

If anyone has any info on this I would be so grateful. My head is spinning and i cant get much sense out of her at the moment.

Is there any way at all she might be able to retrieve the money? I'm guessing not.

Open no apps from this person report

to bank.
Tell them to Go Away and access www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/threats/how-to-stop-phone-hacking

And www.thecyberhelpline.com/guides/hacked-online-bank-account

OP there was a TV programme on this week (which I saw tonight on gogglebox!) where the scammer did the exact same thing. Got the person to open a link and was able to remotely
Control her phone. I’m so sorry this happened, they are total scum
But some of these scammers are very sophisticated and prey on the vulnerable 😢

[quote Sarahzb]And www.thecyberhelpline.com/guides/hacked-online-bank-account[/quote]
Thanks very much for this!

@MancInSpanx I had never heard of this one and thought I was on the ball. It seemed incredible hearing it. Wiser now though.

I spent most of last night researching the process of reclaiming the lost money. Her bank is signed up to the code that promises to refund the victim unless they were grossly negligent.

What I can't fathom right now is her lack of concern about the money. 10K is a bloody good sum and I know she can't afford to lose it. I have sent her a lot of info about the bank's process and how to reclaim it, and offered to go with her and help, etc.
But she seems uninterested, just says 'yeh yeh, thanks'.

We spent 4 hours on the phone yesterday in total, and she didn't mention the money once. If i pressed her and asked if the money had really gone, she said yes, but there seems to be no concern about it. If that were me I would be going up the wall.

All of her focus is on her ID being stolen, even though it's reported. she has been told they are unlikely to do much else with it. They'd used it to try to open a bank account in her name, but obviously that is now scuppered.

I am having trouble getting my head around some of this.

She was told to contact Action Fraud and CIFAS but hasn't bothered
I will confess that it crossed my mind that the money was safe and she had experienced a bad scare. She did contact the bank immediately after the call so it would be great if they'd managed to stop the money going out.

I think her attitude to the money might be embarrassment, or even shock.
The taking of her photo is to steal her ID. I imagine the scammers take out loans in her name. Her driving licence would have her signature on it.
What a horrible thing to happen. I too saw the mobile phone taken over on Gogglebox last night, didn’t see the original programme, unfortunately technology working in the scammer’s favour.

These people are the lowest of the low.

We frequently get calls from “virginmedia” saying that I need to do as they say or my internet will be taken offline. When I get these kinds of calls I invariably hang up on them but once I did say that I would ring virginmedia directly for their help, to which he responded “tell you what you can do, F off.” It was funny because he didn’t actually say the full word, he literally said F off. .

My DS who is more IT savvy than me likes to toy with them, and recently kept one on the line for 35 minutes. he text me saying “I know they’ve won when they start swearing. .

But these people prey on the vulnerable, they only have to make a couple of wins to make money.

Thanks, I am horrified how common this is.

I have finally persuaded her to call Action Fraud, thank god, and given her information about how to try to get the bank to honour the code and reimburse her. I don't think her reticence is embarrassment at this point, she is either in severe shock or has been told the money is safe.

She had an asthma attack during the call and the scammer just continued to plough into her getting her to open links and ignore her inhaler for the moment, what utter utter cunts.
She says she knew it was 'off' but felt hemmed in. I'm just stunned because she is so careful and wary usually.

I've offered to help with anything she needs to do. To me this is like a severe violation, a trauma, and it will take her a long time to recover from it.

People need to be so much more aware of this, I thought myself pretty on the ball and hadn't even heard of this one!

I would love it if anyone could tell what this means:

During the scam call the scammer took remote control of her phone and opened her banking app. She freaked out but was told they wanted to check her security.
In the app a box appeared which looked similar to the little boxes your account and balance sit in.
It had a Union Jack and a foreign word in it - and shortly after a sum of 10k appeared in this box.
My relative freaked out and was told not to worry, they were just putting money into her account to attract hackers

After a minute the box completely disappeared.
Scammer told her to look at her balances to confirm nothing had left her account. And true enough, everything was intact.
She then decided to get to the bank. It took 20 mins, and she says when she got there she was told 10k had gone. Another attempt to get £900 failed.

What I can't understand is why her banking app didn't show her the 10k had gone right away, as mine certainly does that. Nor did she receive a pop up or warning from the bank to ask her if she was sure she wanted to send money to anyone. This is so odd.

Crikey if anyone knows anything about that I would be so grateful .
When she described it my first thought was money laundering.

Maybe it wasn't the legitimate banking app that they opened, so that's why the usual security stuff didn't come up?

Because when they got her too log in, thats when they got into her bank account.
They would have shown her a fake account to ‘prove’ the money was still there ( when actually it was already gone the second she entered her bank details)

I've received fake, scammer phone calls from various sources eg

"You have a problem with your Internet router"

No, & if I had, I would reboot

Carry on....

Scammers swear

However, some other people are very trusting & don't understand the

Don't give out bank details or ID or passwords etc

Thank you, that makes sense, I did suspect the app wasn't legit.

The website 'take 5' is very very informative for protection against fraud and worth a read for anyone concerned about this stuff.
www.takefive-stopfraud.org.uk

She isn't at all trusting but had been through a lot of stress and sleepless nights recently. I can only imagine her guard was down and they managed to confuse her with technical terms that she generally shies away from. Basically they've played on her own paranoia as she is very wry of fraud :(

She's entered the stage of blaming herself and feeling ashamed now, so im trying to keep her confidence up.

Suggest getting your relative to change their phone numbers & request new bank cards etc

Also suggest
If person has x amount of money

Put small amount into one account for general usage

Put other money into a savings account, where it is less accessible

Age UK I believe have info about anti scamming & banks will have leaflets or info that you can print

Get power of attorney sorted out

I had one of these calls today and luckily I knew all about their tactics, they were asking me to read out numbers etc. which I just made up. I kept them on the phone for ages and then eventually said that some letters were coming up on my computer as a new password. I read them out and they were F U C K Y O U . He hung up.

As an aside the real Virgin Media need to let their customers know that they will never call like this and ask for information in this way. They need to write to their customer base.

I regularly get calls allegedly from BT saying my internet has been compromised and will be turned off. Best of luck Im not with BT !

@Mystery4Feeder4

Also suggest If person has x amount of money

Put small amount into one account for general usage

Put other money into a savings account, where it is less accessible

Age UK I believe have info about anti scamming & banks will have leaflets or info that you can print

She's only 50 :) She does have bulk of money in savings and now regrets having so much in her current account - the one that was scammed.

She has had her account frozen and new card on way.

Thanks for all the help everyone

@NETSRIK

I had one of these calls today and luckily I knew all about their tactics, they were asking me to read out numbers etc. which I just made up. I kept them on the phone for ages and then eventually said that some letters were coming up on my computer as a new password. I read them out and they were F U C K Y O U . He hung up.

Perfect! I like your style.

Yeh they had her repeat so many numbers it made her head swim.
christ if only she'd heard of this one.