Elderly mum has been tricked into sending £9000 cash to scammers

[theonlyoneiknow74]

I hope this is the right place to post, I could really do with some advice.

My elderly mother has been tricked into withdrawing £9000 from her bank account and sending it to different addresses given to her by fraudsters.

She's 79, widowed and lives alone. As far as I can gather, she's been victim to an O2 scam which started a few weeks ago when a caller told her she needed a new SIM card. She gave them her bank details and her address so they could take payment for the SIM and send it to her. She realised that this didn't seem right and contacted O2 who told her that it was a scam and to contact her bank which she did. At this point, her debit cards were replaced and she thought that was the end of it. There was, as far as I know, nothing going on with her bank account at this point.

Fast forward to this week and she recieved a text, again purporting to be form O2, saying that they were going to be taking a payment of £40 odd to cover the cost of a watch or some such (this is all very unclear). My mum had then called the numbe ron the text (I think) and as far as she was aware, she was speaking to O2. They then told her that this was a scam and put her through to their fraud department. They then transferred her to the fraud department at her bank. None of this was real and was all part of the scam.

Next thing she received a call (allegedly from her bank's fraud department) saying that they needed her to help catch the scammers and this is where she's fallen for their abhorrent scam. I feel sick thinking about it.

They told her (on three separate occasions over a five day period) that they would secretly deposit £3000 into her account which she should then withdraw in cash and post to an address that they gave her. She was told not to tell anyone and then once the scammers were caught, the bank's fraud department would contact a family member to explain. My mum believed all of this and has gone along with it each time. She's withdrawn three lots of £3000 in cash, packaged it up according to the scammers' instructions, taken taxis to and from three different post offices, spent £15 each time on special delivery and sent this cash on its way. All along she's thinking that it's not her money as the 'bank' have deposited the sums into her acocunts for her to then withdraw. It's absolutely flabbergasting and I can't believe she fell for it but she did. All of this was done in secret and she believed that she was helping to catch fraudsters.

She came to her senses this evening and realsied that something wasn't right, called her bank and was told that it was a scam, and she's convinced that she's not out of pocket. She hasn't been able to check her bank account as she's changed her log ins and now can't get in online. The bank have blocked her accounts so we have to go into a branch after the weekend and try and sort it out. It's such a mess.

I don't think she fully grasps what's happened and seems to be focusing on irrelevant aspects of it. She also seems unclear about how much money she had to begin with which is worrying.

The bank have told us to report it to report fraud uk which I'm in the process of doing on her behalf but I'm wondering if there's anything else we can do to manage this? Apparently the scammers have said they'll call her again after the weekend (it seems that they call, tell her to withdraw the cash and where to send it each time). I've told her not to answer any calls whatsoever but I'm worried that she will.

Not sure what advice I'm looking for really, it's all just so upsetting and distressing.

When my dad was alive I was a joint account holder on his account and I had it on my banking app and I monitored it to see what was there etc….
there are some awful people about I hope you get this sorted out.

Unusual withdrawals should have flagged as a potential concern for scams or money laundering and referred her account to the vulnerable customer team. Presumably these withdrawals were in person as atms have daily limits. If the safeguards failed the bank are culpable and shoukd refund. Police can trace the address she sent it to too.

Also well done to your mum for realising something wasn’t right. If you listen to the podcast on the courier scam https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002m0dz?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

there’s a couple who were scammed like this for nearly a year and lost £670k- their life savings.

Time to tighten up her safety from phone calls. My Dad nearly fell for one that insisted they were from Santander but thankfully hung up on them and rang them off the number he had on a letter. They told him he'd done exactly the right thing, but sadly it meant that Dad got very funny about answering his phone and was missing calls from his GP surgery. We put BT call minder onto his landline and it did stem the worst of the calls he was getting. And he only answered his mobile if he knew the caller.

Don't go into the bank with her. If you do there's a heavy chance they'll think you're coercing her and are part of the scam.

I've had to help an elderly friend of mine to unravel various phone scams, similar to this though by no means as elaborate or for such large amounts. There are so many out there who prey on the elderly over the phone. My friend is especially vulnerable to the pleasant chatty call, where they ask him how he is and he basically lets them know he is elderly, housebound and likes to chat. He also sounds quite 'posh' so I think they get their hopes up about how much money they can get off him as well.

What he has fallen for is the 'subscription' where he gives his bank details for a direct debit for some magazine or whatever, but in fact then handing over details for any amount they want to take. So it's £7.99 for the subscription, but then £149 for some gadget he then thinks has arrived for free. Worth watching out for.

Also be aware her details may now be on a “hit list” which means she is likely to receive further calls, often seemingly to reverse the previous scams or “help” her avoid them via a subscription call screening “service”.

Thank you so much for all of your responses, kind words and advice. I posted this in the middle of the night because I couldn't sleep with it all going round in my head - I really appreciate people taking time to reply.

I've spent all of this morning reporting to Report Fraud/police, speaking the mum's bank again and liaising with my brother about how to proceed.

I'm taking my mum into the bank tomorrow and will hopefully get the acocunt secured, and be able to ask questions about why the essentially let her take £9000 cash out of her account over a 5 day period.

I've since learnt that on the last occasion when she went to withdraw it, the bank did refuse her and said she need to bring in some proof of the work she'd told them she was having done at home. When the scammer called her to check if she'd got the money and she told him she coudln't get it, he told her to go to the Lloyds bank (across the way from the Halifax) as they're all part of the same group. she went in there and was able to withdraw the money with no questions asked. This is a woman who looks like and indeed is the archetypal little old lady with white hair and a walking stick.

I'm going through all of your advice now and making notes, so thanks all again!!

Thank you, yes it's been reported now. Fingers crossed they can trace the addresses.

It's possible, yes and something I'll be monitoring now. I do think, though, that she's just vulnerable and can't conceive of the notion of not answering her phone, even though I've told her previously to ignore it.

This was exactly what happened, even down to the home improvements line...

Thank you, yes the scammers are so sophisitcated and my mum is an easy target.

I'm going to look into setting up LPA now 👍

Absolutely great advice from @Tipu87

I would register as vulnerable with all her banks (if she has others) and any other services eg utilities.

Absolutely follow up with the bank they knew she'd been scammed and then allowed her to all of a sudden withdraw large sums of cash. Come on. That's awful. If they don't respond properly I would take it to the consumer champs at the Times or Guardian.

Is it possible to change her numbers , i think there is a very high risk she will be targeted again.

this did cross my mind actually but she really needs support

At least you can put measures in place to protect and support her. Xx

It should be standard procedure for the bank to request to see an invoice or something from her. I think they have definitely failed to protect her here.

Take photo ID to prove you are both related when you go into the bank.

My father was scammed out of a similar sum and the police were involved too. As he believes he knows everything and won't be told otherwise the bank had to withdraw his credit and debit cards, gave him a cash card and restricted how much he could withdraw every day (£50). He continued to answer his phone though... He has now been diagnosed with dementia so the LPA we have has kicked in so the money side is under control. I discovered that EE have something called a 'safer sim' aimed at protecting children but they are offering it to vulnerableadults too. It's really locked down and the phone number isn't published anywhere. As he doesn't need data we had that function removed. We deleted his call history and texts from anyone other than family, made sure his contacts only contained genuine people and gave his new number only to family members who need it. So far so good. He can call his sister and his children / grandchildren and they can call him - so far no scam calls at all. So it might be worth looking at that for your Mum.

I hope you get everything sorted.

These scammers are utter scum.

Be aware that having fallen for this, your mum will be on a “suckers list” and is likely to be repeatedly targeted with different scams in future. It happened to a friend’s mum. My friend thinks his mum gave away over 80k before he moved in with her to get a handle on it.

Update:

We went into the bank yesterday and explained the whole thing to an adviser who then spoke to the fraud team. Incredibly, they agreed to refund the whole amount and it was back in my mum's account straightaway. I was godsmacked as I was expecting to have to fight to get anything at all.

We went to the O2 shop and got her number changed and I was ablt to relax a little after that, however I then got a call from my mum yesterday evening saying that the scammer had just called on her landline! She still has this as she was under the impression that she needed it for her broadband. I thought she still used it for calls but apparently not. I told her to unplug it which she did. She had also hung up straight away when she realised who it was which is progress i suppose.

The whole thing is so unsettling and I'm slightly worried that this won't be the end of it, although logically I can't see what else they could do. It's all been reported to the police/fraud action and I've given quite a lot of detail including the addresses she sent the cash too and the tracking numbers for the parcels - when I've checked on Royal Mail it shows proof of delivery photos of three scruffy houses and three pairs of feet with the packages mhy mum sent plus others. Absolutely unbelievable.

That's really good news about the bank. But given she's had more calls on her landline, can you contact her service provider and get some sort of call monitoring put in?

I’m so glad you got it back. I really feel they failed to safeguard a vulnerable client.

12 years ago I got of a flight from Russia and was called by the bank when I was in ther airport and told that suspicious activity and been identified in my card. I had no evidence who it was calling me and was stressed as I had just landed and to be honest don’t usually answer calls from I know number, and was skeptical it was genuine. Any way it was and the fraud team stated my card had been used in Florida. So they blocked and refunded it.

the point- it has struck me ever since then that we have such a rigoirois procedure when we call them, but not if they call us. I really feel that should have a password or number they give us to prove who they are.

Get mandated on her bank account. See if you can get enduring power of attorney or lasting power of attorney. Change her telephone numbers. Join the telephone preference service and tell her never to take a cold call ever.

Am so glad it was refunded. Amazing

And well done on unplugging the land-line. Hopefully these bastards will get caught

She's now had her landline fully disconnected and has a new mobile number!

Really sorry to hear about your mum's experience. After both of our grandparents recently got scammed, me and a friend are looking into how we can try and help families prevent their elderly relatives being scammed in the future.

We're trying to understand what would have helped people like your mum, e.g. an educational session on what to look out for or a safe number to ring if she felt suspicious.

If you have any thoughts on what could have prevented this (here or by PM me), it would mean a lot to hear your thoughts. Absolutely no pressure. Either way, I hope you get her money back.