Mumsnet users share their thoughts and experiences of financial fraud with Take Five

[JustineBMumsnet]

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Finding out that you’ve been a victim of a financial scam or fraud is never an easy thing to deal with. They can occur through varying methods such as via phone, email, text and/or post. With that being said Take Five want you to share your and/or your friends and family’s experiences of fraud or scams.

Here is what Take Five have to say: “Our research shows that many people do not feel confident that they could identify a fraudulent approach. Therefore the event will aim to empower and inspire parents to feel better prepared to ‘confidently challenge’ fraudsters, and recognise signs of fraud - remembering the mantra – My Money? My Info? I don’t think so."

Do you have an internal siren that goes off when you feel like something is a scam? Perhaps you’ve been scammed before and now know the best course of action to take? Or maybe you helped stop a family member from giving their bank details to someone you didn’t feel was genuine?

Whatever you or your family’s experiences of financial frauds and/or scams, write them on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

I'm good at spotting scams but I worry about my parents. I always keep a check on my online banking. I was once scanned when I bought a washing machine part from what I thought was a real company but was scammed out of £20. There was nothing the bank or the police could do. I thought it was appalling he was getting away with it xx

I had a credit card opened up in my name and then they treated themselves to two flights to India and a just eat takeaway too!!!

I check my bank accounts daily so I know if people are using my card details so I can catch them early if it ever does happen to me.

I haven't fallen foul of any scam but I do get lots of phishing emails, some texts which do come from my bank number (not sure how they do that) and even a phone call where they wanted me to do things on my computer in order for them to gain access - I tried to keep them on the phone as long as I could to stop them being on the phone to someone else. My advice is to always log in via your usual method as you will find out that way whether what they're saying is true. I did once ignore some texts about my card being stopped as they'd detected possible fraud only to find when I went to use it next, it had indeed been stopped!

I'm pretty good at spotting email scams, but I once had my card cloned at a cash point. Luckily my bank spotted it. When I got their text and rang them, they said they thought it was odd that someone who buys petrol a fiver at a time would suddenly want to wire over £400 to Ghana!

I'm fairly savvy when it comes to phishing or scam type emails and google is a great way to find out if an email is a scam. My bank as well stopped a transaction that was dodgy. Someone tried to book a holiday using my details, but my bank thought it was suspicious and phoned me right away. It's the elderly I fear for who may not be able to tell a hoax email from a genuine one. Always report them if they look dodgy. I've even been as cautious as to report genuine emails as possible scams.

My card was eaten at the ATM on Saturday. I went home and phoned the bank and in the space of 5 minutes I had had 2 lots of 250 taken from my account. Luckily the bank is refunding me. Just be careful when at the ATM

I've helped my dad with phone scams, they like to ring and say there is something wrong with his computer and they need to fix it. He just says "my daughter sorts it for me" and puts the phone down. I hate these scammers who target the old and vulnerable in society :(

I'm often getting scam emails and I can usually spot them a mile away now. I'm naturally suspicious anyway, so luckily I've managed to avoid being scammed so far in my life.

Check your bank accounts and credit cards regularly! The sooner you pick up fraudulent transactions the better.

Avoid clicking on dodgy e-mails

We went on holiday to Malta a few years ago and we paid for our cafe bill with a card. They took the card out of our sight for quite a while which we thought was odd. We got back to the UK and not long later 2 fraudulent transactions for £400 appeared on hubby's bank statement...from a shop in Brazil!!! His card had been cloned and his bank account ended up frozen and it took us quite some time to get the money re-credited. It was really inconvenient and unexpected. We are now careful that our cards stay within eye sight at all times.

I thought I was good at spotting scams, but 2 years ago I had my identity stolen and they took out 5 phone contracts in my name (finally stopping when the credit checks no longer allowed more) brand new iPhones, and must have sold them on. I was left with poor credit, and 5 unpaid phone contracts, while knowing there was someone out there with enough info on me to essentially pretend to be me. Still no idea how it happened, can only assume some post was taken that should have been shredded. I shred everything now and my Facebook and twitter have no personal info on them now...

I've had my card cloned twice now - it's a complete nightmare. Puts me off doing anything online now!

Beware of any emails that purport to be from your bank/a bank and never give out your personal details over the phone.

Be careful even disclosing digits from your pin or password = asked enough times, people will get the full thing!

I never answer nuisance phone calls. Natwest have previously been good at contacting me before I've even realised fraud has occurred on my account

I don't think of myself as a particularly gullible person, but about 4 years ago, I was the victim of an internet scam, followed in the same week by a phone scam-I'm certain that the two were connected.

Scam number one: I needed a new passport, and I registered for one on a very convincing fake website, which looked very much like the official government site. In fact, I paid the exact fee for a full passport as an "admin fee" to this company to fill in a passport for me and send the finished form to me to send off myself.

To do this, I needed to give them my address details, phone numbers, and bank account details (this is relevant). I realised I had made a mistake shortly after sending of the "application". I felt stupid when I looked at the small print on the website and realised I had been the victim of a deeply unethical but not technically illegal confidence trick.

About a week after this, I received a phone call from someone who introduced him self as a policeman and gave me a reference number linked to a local police station. He told me someone had been arrested in possession of cloned versions of my debit and credit cards. He know who I banked with, and knew my address and mobile number.

He sounded 100% convincing. He asked me to ring my bank as soon as possible, to check if any transactions had taken place. When the call finished, I was in a state of high anxiety, but for some reason I hesitated before calling my bank. I then did call them on my landline and had another very plausible conversation with someone I thought worked for my bank. For some reason, I suddenly felt confused and suspicious and I very politely told this person that I was ending the call and would call back.

At this stage, I was in the strange psychological state of feeling suspicious of the bank phone call but still believing the policeman.

I called the station he said he was from, fully expecting to speak to him and they told me that there was no such policeman, and that I had almost been the victim of a well known scam.

If I had continued with the bank phone call, I would have potentially ended up handing over the contents of my bank account to the scammers-I'm not sure how it works technically, but they had temporarily taken over my phone line so that although I thought I was calling my bank, I was calling them. I think that I must have somehow subconsciously realised that there was something "off" about the call, but I can't put my finger on what it was.

I firmly believe that the passport and the bank scam were linked-first, I give my personal details to this shady company, and within a week they have fallen into the hands of a criminal outfit.

As it happens, I didn't have much to lose financially-my credit card was maxed out and my bank account is in permanent overdraft, so they wouldn't have got away with much.

What really hurt though was the experience of having been taken in so thoroughly by someone I believed to be a policeman-I had told him how vulnerable I felt, giving him some personal details, and when the scam didn't work, he left an abusive message on my answerphone. I feel very sorry for the people who have suffered the pain of being taken in by these disgusting individuals, and lost significant amounts of money too.

I hope that this account will warn people of the dangers of both of these scams.

A few years back now, went to cashpoint, account was empty, went into Bank, had been with them 25 years, DH 20, they said perhaps I had taken the money out and fogotten, er no, they werent interested, told them I was going to the Police and did, my money had gone from a cashpoint in a place I had never been. At one point I was in the Natural History Museum, with my Debit card, which I had used to pay for the train tickets to get to london, told the bank this and that I would be on CCTV, they still werent interested. had great difficulty even seeing the manager, often only because the nice Policeman came with me, at one point the acting manager cut up my card in front of me, they assured me Debi cards CANNOT be cloned, the policeman said they had a number of these incidents in my area and the money was going to the USA where I have never been! Second time with debit card, a couple of years before that, noticed money going out every month on a bank statement, managed to trace the company, London based, rang them asked what this was for, they said my internet, we didnt have any ind of PC, laptop,mobile phone, took a letter into the bank to say this was frauulent and they were not to pay out any more money, it wasnt a direct dibet, so I couldnt sop it, again card was distroyed AND bank allowed it to continue for a further 12 months, I did then get the money back from the company, AND cancelled the bank account went elsewhere.

Never fallen for it, but I occasionally get emails telling me there's a problem with my VirginMedia payments.

actually my second bank sent 2 new debits cards to my old address, they even said I had moved and not told them, YET, we actually had a mortgage with them on the new property so how could they say that, then they assured me no-one could use the card anyway, without a pin number, I said they could make purchases in store, stores dont know my signature or on the phone no signature required.

I learnt lots from the twitter party the other day. Fraudsters are getting increasingly sophisticated and we need to be extra vigilant in return. The increasing use of online, contactless technology does concern me as I feel there are more opportunities for hacking etc

I had my card cloned before and my money taken out. Phoned my bank and got it refunded, i was only 17 and it was money my EMA (an allowance that used to be given to young people at college).

I also get emails daily saying. Weve been trying to reach you about a gift voucher. They claim to be different retailers; boots, morrisons, tesco, apple etc. I dont how to block the address on my phone app so i just ignore the email and have put in my junk folder.

I paid for some petrol and about two days later noticed several transactions adding up to about £200 that I didn't recognise. The bank said it looked as though my card was cloned at the petrol station as that was the last place it was used by me. It was really worrying as it was close to Christmas but thankfully the bank refunded it in full.

I don't save my bank details to any online shopping sites. It's a little bit of a faff having to get my card out to enter the number each time I buy something online but I feel happier knowing that if any of the accounts are hacked, there's a little less data available.

I’m so suspicious of emails and texts. I also forward them to the company’s phishing email address so they are aware.

Having said that, DH won something with O2 and it just came from a random mobile number with no company name and it turned out to be genuine but I got him to check it with O2 independently first!

I used to be a trusting person. Now I trust very few people. My experience of financial fraud was by the one person I should have been able to trust above all others, my husband. He abused his position of trust and power within my family (he was a lawyer) to steal the inheritance left by my Mother, forge my signature to open bank accounts and sign for loans. I ended up divorced, in debt to the sum of over £250,000 and homeless (our house had been remortgaged twice and when my ex lost his job (workplace fraud too) the building society took the house back.
Always be an active participant in household finances. Question everything, make sure you see paperwork, statements etc. It is beyond shocking to find out your partner could defraud you. It’s not just dodgy companies, overseas princes needing a spot of help who are after your money. Sometimes the scammer or fraud lives under the same roof.