Scammers gotta scam. It’s what they do. But the victims are their own worst enemies. Surely we all know how they work, don’t we? We all know that organisations don’t email, phone or text asking for sensitive information? Don’t we? Obviously not.
Emmeline Hartley is smart and tech-savvy. But last week the actress, 28, unwittingly became the face of Britain’s fraud epidemic.
On March 21, she tweeted how she had been ‘scammed out of every penny’ in a sophisticated con involving a fake Royal Mail text and a ‘spoof’ call from Barclays.
These Royal Mail texts have been doing the rounds for a while, so people should be well aware that they are scams. If you have money to pay on a package, they put a card through the door. Of course, these have been spoofed as well, but you can always go onto the Royal Mail site and check. I had a customs charge card put through a while back. I simply went onto the Royal Mail site and put in the details of the card and it was genuine. I did not type in the URL on the card.
Two days later she received a call, seemingly from a Barclays number. The caller, who spoke with a London accent, claimed to be from the bank’s fraud unit.
He knew the details of her accounts and said she had given away her bank details to scammers on the fake Royal Mail website.
He told her to transfer all the cash she had – around £1,000 – to a ‘safe account’, which she did.
Oh, for God’s sake. This is a red alert klaxon. The bank will never do this. How many times do they have to say it before people take notice? They never, never, never ask you to move the money to a safe account. That didn’t stop the treasurer of the BMW club doing just that with over twenty grand of the club’s money and the committee getting well pissed off when members took him to task over it. That’s right, they weren’t pissed off with him for being so bloody stupid, they kicked out members who had the temerity to get arsey and complain.
Emmeline, who lives in Birmingham, only realised it was a scam when the fraudster tried to get her to transfer her overdraft, but by then it was too late.
Well, yes. But there were a number of warning signs well before she got to this point. Even if you haven’t come across these scams before, just a general awareness should trigger alerts. But apparently not.
Experts say fraudsters are preying on the confusion faced by online shoppers following Brexit, with many being asked to pay extra customs fees and VAT charges.
They will try any angle that works. But there is nothing confusing. The Royal Mail will put a card through the letterbox with a reference number. You go onto the Royal Mail website and select the relevant page and type in the number. If it works, then it is genuine. If not, you could always call your local sorting centre where the package is being held.
As the article mentions, the scammers are spoofing numbers to fool people. But again, there is a simple way around this. You hang up and wait a decent interval before calling back, use another phone or call into your branch. All of this is well known. There really isn’t an excuse for falling for these scams.
And Money Mail has spoken to a victim who said the fraudster called him from the number on the back of his bank card.
Seamus McCormack was scammed out of £12,000 in savings after he was duped by a fake Royal Mail text.
The 33-year-old from Walthamstow, North-East London, received a message on March 11 saying he needed to pay £2.99 in postage fees.
It led to a convincing phone call, apparently from the number shown on his bank card, which told him to move the money. His bank is investigating.
How many times do these people have to be told? Banks do not do this. If there is a problem, they have the power to simply freeze the account.
Barclays says: ‘No genuine bank would message you to transfer money to a ‘safe account’. Ignore anyone who asks you to do this.’
A Royal Mail spokesman says: ‘In cases where customers need to pay a surcharge for an underpaid item, we’d let them know by leaving a grey Fee To Pay card. We would not request payment by email or text.’
How many times do they have to repeat this?
I’ve said for some time now the whole online fraud situation is being dealt with entirely back to front, for cases where people transfer money using online banking at least. Instead of offering people ‘protection’ we should say very bluntly that there is no offence of fraud when a person voluntarily transfers their money to a third party via electronic means. It would be viewed as a gift by the legal system. Just as if a person turned up on your doorstep and entirely peacefully (ie no threats were involved) asked you to give them £1000 there and then to ‘keep safe for you’, if they phone up and ask the same and you comply the authorities will take it as a voluntary action, not a crime. Make it clear to people they are on their own. The bank will not refund your money, nor will the police investigate because no crime has occurred. People might then just cotton on to be a bit more careful.
Yes, I fail to see why the banks should be held responsible for their customers’ gullibility. My insurer expects me to lock my bike up when it’s not in use – how is this different?
That said, the misrepresentation does make it a crime and the perpetrators should be prosecuted if caught.
Agreed, but the reality is that a fair amount of these scams SMS and telephone calls originate in India and Pakistan (even if the guy calling “sounds like he has a London (more likely Luton) accent”, which is a complete non-start for the various divisions of the UK’s Police “Service”.
Anyway, Plod are too busy chasing people up for saying unpleasant things on Twatter.
I’ve found having the “Mr. Number” app installed on my phone helps deal with this sort of nonsense invisibly.
The Indian police don’t seem to bothered about it, either.
…as long as the local chief inspector gets his cut…
Agree, as @LR says, banks and their shareholders (aka your pension) should not be responsible for customer stupidity. These scams are no different from being mugged and your watch, cash, phone etc stolen or being burgled.
If you’re stupid as bank to put a limit on max transaction value
I don’t know how these things happen.
I had to make a payment today. Not massive, just into five figures.
Took two hours, involving multiple calls to the bank, rejection of the transfer and my account being frozen. All because the bank was worried about fraud.
Went through on the end, but was a complete faff.
So how do these fraud things not set of multiple alarm bells at the bank as well?
I don’t know. The BMW club one was just over £20k. It should have rung alarm bells.
Does the post title qualify as a betteridge? Or does it not count if it’s a rhetorical question?
Bit of both, I think.
What’s called a ‘QTWTAIN,’ Longy!
It’s a demarcation issue: only the banks are entitled to destroy our savings. (How many people are unaware, even now, that their deposits are actually potentially risky investments in the bank itself?)
Since Xmas, I have had half a dozen scam Royal Mail texts and a similar number of various bank ones (none of which I have an account with). But most interesting are the phone calls which inform me that I am being investigated for fraud and (variously) my bank account has been frozen or my social security number has been suspended (whatever that means). I am sure that if I followed these up, it would mean parting with cash to make the problem go away. I take the view that unless the boys in blue knock on my door, they can be safely ignored. In the meantime I simply block the numbers.
I am sure that if I was really being investigated, the last thing they would do is ring me up and pre-warn me !
Emmeline Hartley is smart and tech-savvy
Obviously she is not
One security request I have for banks, utility companies etc is:
Stop Sending HTML emails that require web access to read. They are an open invitation for fraud, tracking, malware etc
Plain text is sufficient and safer, we don’t need pictures of logos etc
OT but still scam/security
At last, media starting to realise vaccine passport is ID Card by back door. Shame @FH211 wouldn’t see this when he supported them with ‘it’s only a little thing to be free again’
The passports to hell
Also a massive security threat
The dangerous flawed technologies behind vaccine passports
I hope you all said No on Gove’s ‘call for evidence’, did you?
Meanwhile leaving
USSRUK ban extended by another two months until 31 August, visiting an airport now illegal tooOh, and if you go down to the beach, make sure it’s far from a seaport as visiting that now illegal too – helps Gov’t hide the illegals arriving
Update
“Vaccine certificates are ‘ID Cards on Steroids’”
Writing for politics.co.uk, Ian Dunt – yes, the ultra-lockdown zealot – argues that vaccine certificates could “constitute one of the most fundamental alterations between the individual’s relationship with the state in the modern period”
Consultation closed 23:59:59 30 March, 31 March Gove sells it to MPs
Look at Question 1:
Screams consulation a sham, decision already made
People need to wake up, open eyes & ears and shout NO on this and other disastrously authoritarian, intrusive and ineffective proposals
Did you respond? Did you say NO?