Just been scammed!

[FlyingBuddha]

I feel so stupid and so upset.

I got a phone call tonight from a private number and answered (first mistake) the guy on the other end sounded genuine and told me someone had tried to log into my Klarna account at 8am this morning, he asked if it was me, I said no I don’t remember doing so and started panicking I’d been hacked (oh the irony!) he then said he had sent me through a one time passcode and if I could let him know what it was he could then proceed in freezing my account and changing the details so no one else could enter who wasn’t me.
I said thanks and ended the call.
I did think it was odd, but because no bank details had been exchanged alarm bells didn’t initially ring.

About 5 minutes later I had five notifications in a row on my NatWest account of payments of £50.00 each from Klarna, totally £200, then another from them of £116.

I immediately called NatWest and they blocked and cancelled my card, said they will send me a new one with new pin, they have also said they can refund the money back to me too, but it’ll be in a few working days.
I then called Klarna and they have flagged the purchases (totally £600!) as fraud and I’m to call again for an update in a couple of days.

I am so upset at myself. I haven’t got £600 to lose, we are on a very low income and I’m struggling as it is.
I know it’s my own stupidity , but I am so frustrated. I literally watched the money leave my account every couple of minutes, I was shaking so much I could hardly call the NatWest number.

My hyper-vigilant, intelligent husband was scammed a couple of months ago. The scammers are so sophisticated that they had managed to take over his phone in some way. He double checked that the number calling him was the bank's genuine number, and his real bank subsequently told him that even if he had put the phone down on the scammers and rung the bank, the call would still have been diverted to scam-land. (And no, it wasn't one of those cases where the phone hadn't been disconnected). Fortunately in his case the real bank froze all the scammers' attempts, so none of the money left his account. But I can't stress highly enough how computer-literate, aware and intelligent hubby is. If he can get scammed, anyone can.

BASTARDS!!!! BASTARDY BOLLOCKY BASTADS!!!!!

I hope in 6 months you can at least put this down to experience..

Also this guy does some good payback... hopefully it will make you laugh!

That’s actually quite old hat now.

Scammers are now working on deep fake accents using AI, so that they will sound like someone you know and trust.

I have told my elderly mother that if she gets a phone call from someone claiming to be me and asking her for emergency money to be not afraid to ask me to share a joint past memory that only I would know.

I got very nearly got scammed but was lucky.

I got a text with my banks name come up saying “We will call you shortly to discuss some charges on your account” it was identical to ones I’ve had before in the past.
I then got a call from my banks phone number so didn’t question it, they had a northern English accent and I’m in the north west.

They said my account had been used to attempt to buy crypto currency and had my account number and sort code, they asked me to confirm my customer number that I had for online banking and asked when I was due to be paid so they could attempt to put a hold on the money going in (or something similar) till they had investigated.

I’d just woken up and panicked about losing my money. I wanted to check my account number so went to my purse to get my debit card and realised it wasn’t there, I’d been out the night before and it was definitely in my purse. I asked if they could cancel my card and send a new one out and the way they hesitated then agreed quickly and asked for my customer number again seemed a bit dodgy so I said I’d call back.

I called my local bank branch and they said they hadn’t called but I couldn’t get my head round their phone number coming up on the phone and by text. I bank with a building society that only has branches in the north west so it must have been sophisticated scammers.
The man in the bank was pretty surprised as well but said to check if it was the same number I receive OTPs from so they could rule out it being internal, it was different so it was obviously a scam.

The man in the bank said it was likely my card had been stolen in an attempt to then scam me, my driving license with my address on was in my purse so they had my account number and sort code and address, it means they couldn’t use those to take money but it made them convincing enough to try to scam me into giving out details.

I’m sorry this happened to you OP, you aren’t the only one though, like pp said they feed into your panic and know exactly how to trick people.

Haha, thwarted by the secure gates! I think also the fact that so many people work from home (and have Ring doorbells) has made these kind of scams harder. Good!

This happened to somebody local to me this week and they posted on our community Facebook page to warn. I just don't answer the phone now (unless it's somebody I know of course) because scammer calls are so regular now. I'm sorry this happened to you OP and I hope you get it sorted. Report it to Action Fraud too.

OMG this happened to me today! I also shared the one time passcode - they said they had intercepted a suspicious purchase to New Look.... he kept putting me on hold whilst they cleared things and whilst on hold i googled whether Klarna would ring off the cuff - i realised but only after i'd given him the OTP. I ended the call and went on to online chat straight away with Klarna and they logged me out of all devices - just checked now and nothing has been spent so whatever they were trying probably didn't work luckily. Just be warned though- the guy gad a strong irish accent. He was definitely in my account though because he could tell me what i had bought.....

Ahh OP, If it makes you feel any better I’ve just had the same call. They sent me the OTP, but I put the phone down. It was this thread that set off alarm bells that it wasn’t right. It did come across as very legitimate and I can see how they scammed you!

I'm fed up of the back teeth of having to spend hours persuading family members that letters with financial demands about debts or parking fines are usually scams. There was a letter today from CCS Collect about an HMRC debt. They're a legitimate agency and these people are using CCS Collect's proper branding and mostly correct contact details. They're hoping people panic and pay without noticing that there's no reference to how the debt was allegedly incurred or even the year of the debt. (For avoidance of doubt, the family member doesn't owe money. After more than an hour's back and forth, I managed to get them to log into their HMRC account to show them. They're going to call tomorrow and ask if HMRC wants a copy of the letter.)

With phone calls it's worse, because someone needs to be there and realise what's going on before someone hands over details.

I can't think how much time and money this has cost people I know. And, one of these days, I'm going to get caught out because I disbelieve everything, never respond etc.

What makes it worse is the sheer impossibility of people being able to contact HMRC etc. within a reasonable timescale. There are people who are still making 200 calls to try and talk to them and getting nowhere on the webchat.

So I randomly received the same call 20 mins ago and was like this seems so legitimate as he told me he was from the fraud department! He asked if I tried to make a purchase in Cardiff to which I said no! He then told me it had flagged up on my account as I make the purchases from my registered address which he then told me the area I live in! Next thing he was telling me was that I’d receive an email with a security code-well guess what he asked for next! I told him I wasn’t comfortable giving out such code and told him the first and last digit only, he couldn’t get off the phone quick enough!

So I just wanted to say I understand what you’ve gone through as it did sound so genuine at first then my inner sense told me to not give him any details.

hope you’ve got it all sorted now.

I had this exact thing happen to me last week on 17/10. I gave the one time passcode but nothing else and they told me to delete the app and then reinstall it when I got an email from them, which of course never came.

They did over £800 to my bank which NatWest have been amazing about and refunded the very next day. But there’s still a £500 balance on my Klarna account to my name. My account has now been blocked so I can’t even see it anymore, has yours been blocked now? I refuse to ever pay this amount and I just hope they will see (like NatWest did) that it wasn’t me and clear it off my account. Have you heard anything more?

I've just had an email from my bank saying they are amending their policy to NOT refund people who lose money to scams such as this.

let this thread be a warning to everyone to NEVER give out a OTP, no legitimate person will ask for it over the phone.

(For avoidance of doubt, the family member doesn't owe money. After more than an hour's back and forth, I managed to get them to log into their HMRC account to show them. They're going to call tomorrow and ask if HMRC wants a copy of the letter.)

As an update, by some form of digital miracle, the family member spoke to HMRC this morning and they verified that there is no debt nor outstanding payments to make. We've scanned and forwarded a copy of the letter. (Not that I can see what HMRC can do about it but they need to update advice like, e.g., "Never scan a QR code. Don't make a mobile payment without pausing to think and making additional inquiries".

If anyone ever calls claiming to be from your bank or klarna or similar do not give info even if they can provide details. Tell them you will call the number on your card, account etc. if genuine they will be happy to let you. Always use a mobile to call rather than a landline as they can sometimes hang on the line so when you call out you are actually still on call to them. The bank will never ask for your pin or one time passcode over the phone.

"started panicking"

I think that is their aim - to make people panic. Because that can override a lot of the sense checks that people go through in their heads and that generally keep them safe.

I’m here because I’ve just fell for the exact same thing. I feel like an absolute idiot. They didn’t get anything from my bank but I’m more concerned that my personal information was in the Klarna app like address and date of birth. They caught me off guard while i was shopping 😞. I’m currently on to action fraud.

Hi this has just happened to myself the exact same thing! Could you help me how you resolved this !! I feel like I’m going around in circles with Klarna

I don’t know how close together the transactions were but you can put a hold on your card in your banking app. So after the first payment went out you could stop any more transactions going through whilst you are trying to get through to the bank.

You could also have used this as an option to give you more time to assess if the call was genuine.

I frequently misplace my card and this is a very useful feature whilst I look through all my bags and coats trying to decide if I have actually lost it.

Hi, sorry to hear about this. I was pleased that your refund is sorted. I got the tv licence email. It told me it was due but ours is always due in March so I ignored it. The criminals are getting clever.

Thank you, OP, for your post. I am on what sometimes seems like a one woman crusade to make all these types of scam public, but people who fall for scams seem to feel such shame and guilt that they often don't speak about what happened to them, through embarrassment. If more people stood up and said 'I'm a reasonable, intelligent, sensible human being but this STILL happened to me', then hopefully more people would hear about the scams going round and become aware. You could save many others from getting caught out the same way.
Good on you.