My mother was specifically targeted with some homework by the scammers and
a few confidence-building calls leading up to the scam.
They called her purporting to be her bank head office. They provided her
bank account details (sort-code and account number) and asked her to
confirm them. They told her what her maiden name was and her date of birth
and she confirmed them. Then they said there had been some suspicious
activity on other accounts in her bank and asked her to be vigilant, but
not to contact the local branch directly, nor to talk about this matter
with anyone else, as they suspected an employee. [At this point I would
have baled but she agreed.] End of call.
She contacted my sister and asked if she thought everything was legit?
They agreed that she had not provided any data but had only confirmed what
they already knew. Conclusion: 'it's probably ok then'.
Some hours later, a call purporting to be from her local bank asking if she
was in John Lewis (department store) trying to get a £221 transaction
authorised? She replied no and they thanked her and said they were
watching her account carefully due to the concerns they had. The
transaction would be blocked. End of call.
Next day a call purporting to be the police, referencing the previous days
discussions, checking that all was still ok with her account. She said yes
and they said that they have arrested someone from her bank. Thank you for
your help.
Later, another call saying that the person arrested had admitted passing on
bank and credit card information to persons unknown... now they have to
widen the net a bit. 'Do you have any credit cards?' 'Yes - one.' 'Could
you tell us the number and we'll watch that account too.' [No alarm bells
sounding unfortunately.] So she gave them the card number AND the 3-digit
security code on the back. [Scam complete.]
But soon my mother realises what's happened (she's sharp for an 88-year
old) and starts making her own phone calls and getting everything properly
blocked.
There were two transactions made on the card for about £150 each.
[Presumably by phone or internet with click-and-collect, or delivery to a
locker or some other way to avoid traceability.] She's fairly confident
that the card company will refund her, but we'll see..
Take care out there...
Jez
On 9 December 2015 at 11:00, Piers Hemy <piers@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> PS Jez, don't forget to tell us about your Mum's scam :-)
>
>
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