Mum been victim of a phone scam

[Marshmallow09er]

For the second time. This time they have managed to take around £8k.

I worry they are targeting her, and her vulnerability to these kind of things.

Last time I went through so carefully for her to never give out any details over the phone but she's done it again.

She's 73 and seemingly cognitively ok, no memory issues, but increasingly it feels like her judgement is off somehow.

I'm not really sure how to stop it happening again.
We've blocked her account and the bank are sending new cards (again).

Is there anything more the bank could do?

CIFAS isn’t going to help in this situation unless they are making credit applications in her name.

Victim support rang this morning (police). They were very helpful and they think the bank will reimburse the money. Gosh I really hope so.

The bank should refund. Whilst your mother likely sent the money of her own free will she was still scammed.

I'm crossing fingers & toes that you get a refund.
Prior to my taking control of her finances via a power of attorney, my mother was scammed out of £1.6k by some 'builders'. She had early dementia but presented well. You wouldn't have thought she was ill. She certainly didn't.
Throughout the process she refused to listen to me & when these 'builders' drove her to the bank to do a bank transfer, she didn't see anything wrong with it....
The bank wouldn't pay her back despite the dementia diagnosis. We got a reference number from the police. And that was that.

It did however give me leverage over her as she was embarrassed - after all 'she wasn't ill & perfectly capable of looking after herself'. I repeatedly pointed out that this was no longer true until she relented.
The power of attorney (previously registered) was put into action. Anything financial was to be dealt with me alone. I closed the bank account & opened a new one so no-one had her details. She had an account with no overdraft & she had a bank card - money was put in there each month for her day-to-day things.

If you haven't got a financial power of attorney registered, do so - it doesn't have to be used yet but may be needed in the future.
For the meantime, maybe add your name to her bank accounts so you can easily keep an eye on them using online banking?
Move most of the money out of her current account into a savings account. Close her current account & open a new one - might be a bit of a hassle with direct debits but worth it - for all her incoming funds.
Set up a 'mini' current account with a bank card & no overdraft for her to use for day-to-day stuff. A specific amount from her main current account can be transferred by standing order each month.
And set up a call screening service - a friend has one & I have to say my name before I get connected.

I truly hope you get her money back.

OP my mum gets regular calls saying "your internet has been compromised - press 1 to speak to someone" or something.

she hangs up, but I think what happens if you press it is that they talk through getting access to your computer. Is that what happened to your mum?

Hope the bank refund the money OP.

I strongly advise looking into financial POA too. My DM was scammed out of 11k last year in a romance fraud. The case is going to court and we're hoping the perpetrators are found guilty. We've got the POA in case it's needed in the future, but in the interim my DB has access to mum's bank accounts and makes sure all is above board. Could you do that at least?

Hope you get it sorted though. What a worry.

we have a screening thing on our phone as we getting funny phone calls last year " sky talk shield". Im sure other companies do similar. When someone calls they have to say who they are and I press 1 to accept the call. We were on TPS and that was useless.....but on this zero cold calls of any kind. We can add friends/ family so they dont have to state their name/ business lol! Have you spoken to the phone company?

I get no fun from winding up microsoft fixer no more lol.....

The fraud department aren't going to reimburse her. So she's lost the £8k. I'm absolutely gutted for her.
But putting stuff in place to ensure this doesn't happen again.
Thanks for all of your comments.

how horrible for her, adding insult to injury.

Oh OP that’s different disgraceful of the fraud department. How can this not be fraud on a vulnerable person.

So sorry to hear this. Can you appeal via MP or local adult safeguarding board?

Oh OP that’s different disgraceful of the fraud department. How can this not be fraud on a vulnerable person. It is fraud, and a vulnerable person, but the banks have no legal requirement to take care of vulnerable customers, and will take the view that they did not do anything wrong - they merely acted on the instructions of their customer who they deemed to have capacity (because otherwise, there would be an Attorney looking after their affairs).

There's so much wrong with the banking system once you get older - the reliance on memorising PIN nos, the difficulty of getting a bank account which doesn't allow you to go into overdraft, bank transfers relying on numbers only (although they're supposed to be implementing a system which allows you to check the account no you're transferring to is in the name you're expecting), the whole move to on-line banking.

Had one of these couple of days ago, claiming to be BT saying our internet and phones would be disconnected that day unless I pressed 1 to talk to the technical team.
Reported it to BT who sent a link to a site instructing how to block such calls. Haven’t had time yet. No expert, but I know there are many services that block these calls, you’ll have to research.

Thankfully my mother doesn't have online banking - still the old fashioned system. Just as well as shes so rule abiding that if someone with authority asks her questions about her banking she tended to give them the answers. Now she knows to refer such callers to me or my brother or tell them to write to her at the address which should be on their records. That also deals with any fraudulent "HMRC" calls.

Continuing this thread so as not to lose useful info above.

MIL been scammed again...... by a company purporting to stop unwanted phone calls no less. (I have details) DH has already got PoA, so was able to see details & contact bank who will get their fraud team onto it. I've logged with Action Fraud. Haven't tried Trading Standards. She's already registered with TPS. There's a useful looking site called Think Jessica, I may get a leaflet for MIL. And maybe police; don't want to scare her, but I do wonder if she's now on a local list of soft touches. I've looked up the company and found it on companies listings.

Now researching phones that will block unknown calls, so thank you all for suggestions. We can set up a list of "approved" callers, that will take all day!! And we'll need to let hospitals & GP know, as they may use withheld numbers.

Considering reducing amount in account; setting lower alerts; talking to bank re unusual transactions.

It's the debit card that's the problem, as she gave the details over the phone & she needs it to get cash out.

I don't think she's realised as she did say, oh well, at least I won't get any more unwanted phone calls.

Have I missed anything?

I'd recommend a BT Call Guardian phone. Anyone on her contacts list or approved will get through but everyone else has to say who they are & press the # key before you get the option to accept their call.

I got one as I work shifts and was being disturbed by calls. Its literally got a 100% success rate of blocking these calls. I've not had a single unwanted call since I got it

www.google.com/amp/s/www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/04/tsb-launches-refund-guarantee-for-fraud-victims-/amp/

Article above about TSB Fraud guarantee which might help if relatives are willing to change banks.

Scratching off the security code on any cards is often advised for vulnerable people.

An elderly neighbour of ours, no dementia but very naive and trusting, was scammed out of a huge amount of money over the phone - repeated payments for 'tax' on the £1m 'lottery win' they told her she'd won. The initial caller told her she was from NatWest Bank and of course it never occurred to EN that this was just an unscrupulous criminal lying through her teeth. These vile people can be so persuasive and sound so nice and friendly.

Her children eventually installed TruCall on her phone - Trusted numbers only.

OP, is your DM in the habit of doing Wordsearch 'competitions' - the kind where you very conveniently phone in your entry and all your personal details, at God knows how much per minute? I ask because I know our EN was addicted to these, and I've read that such databases may be sold on as what they so charmingly call 'Suckers' Lists.'

I'm sure this was how our neighbour was chosen as a likely soft target. Anyone with a relative in the habit of doing these,,please be aware!

There's a website called Think Jessica, all about such scams. It's common for victims to be told not to tell friends or family about their 'big win', since family will only be jealous and try to stop them getting it.

Our EN refused all along to believe that she was being scammed by heartless criminals, such was the 'friendly' hold they had established over her.

Well, well, well. DH just checked into his Mum's account and the money has been refunded. I suspect that the person who scammed her has had a phone call himself. . Can I name the company here?

Thank you for the responses. We're looking at the phones.

Hi,

Just thought I'd update this incase anyone finds themselves in a similar situation.

We referred it to the Ombudsman and they have as of this morning agreed that my mum's bank will pay all of the £8k plus interest back to her.

We're so delighted!

So pleased for you.
Not sure if this will help but my fil was giving bank details on phone, luckily respectable companies who reimbursed when we explained he didn’t need products. But anyway my son suggested as fil never used the card online we could scratch off the 3 digit security code so he couldn’t give it out. It never came to this because fil died shortly after.
It might be worth a try for you though.

That's great, I'm so pleased for you and you Mum.
Has she agreed to any of the measures suggested above to stop it happening again?

Oh goodness, congratulations! My dad was caught by a bank scam and I've never felt so sick. It hurt that my the rock of my life got caught out by such a stupid thing, and it dented his pride massively. He was refunded eventually, it seems that whoever did it had a certain amount of access to his accounts that they shouldn't have had.

Yes she's got call screening now, and is much more (possibly overly) cautious.

She did give the scammers the security codes (3 times) that you are supposed to never give out, so that's why the bank didn't repay to start.

But the basis of our complaint was that the bank were encouraging her to keep a large sum in her current account rather than in savings (in exchange for a monthly credit), and if they are doing that they should have protocols in place to check suspicious activity (the £8k was taken out as 3 x £2k amounts).

It's taken since May to sort but we got there in the end - just in time for Xmas for her 😊.

It has dented her confidence, but this has given her a real boost.