Bank scam

[Janey Dal]

Hi all

I just wanted to give you a heads up on a telephone call I received last week.

I answered my mobile phone and a man said he was ringing from the Halifax (my bank) and asked if I could confirm he was speaking to Mrs Jane Dalgleish which I confirmed. He then gave me the last 4 digits of my bank account and the last 2 digits of my sort code and asked me to confirm that they were mine. Again I confirmed that.

I was VERY careful not to give him any information, just to confirm what he told me.

He said there was evidence of fraudulent activity on my account and listed 2 companies that I had not spent money with and also told me that they fraudsters had tried to increase my overdraft and applied for a loan. I was proper spooked!

To cut a long story short, he then said that he would have to set up a new bank account for me as the fraudsters had accessed the account and it was no longer secure.

I was wavering about the integrity of the call, but he kept talking which didn’t give me time to think properly.

He was going to give me the details of my new bank account so I could transfer money across. I was sufficiently sceptical to refuse to do this. I said that he could be anybody and I was not happy transferring any money.

He then told me to check the number he had rung from which I did. He then asked me to check the telephone number on the back of my bank card. They were the same!

Nevertheless I refused to transfer any money and he said he would get his manager to ring me back within an hour. I then checked on-line and was advised that this was a scam and not to transfer any money. I blocked the number so have no idea if he rang back although I doubt it.

I just wanted you to be aware that I was VERY close to falling for this. Retrospectively it was ridiculous, but at the time it was plausible.

I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent and very aware of not divulging information to random people - particularly working in the health service we all have a huge awareness of information governance. Nonetheless the man was utterly plausible.

BEWARE!

Hugs

Jane xx

[paul...m]

Thanks for the warning Jane

[maz]

Thank you Jane. They are getting cleverer all the time. Do you need to do something about your account with them seemingly knowing so much? How did they find that information? All very worrying.

[Janey Dal]

I spoke to the bank Marilyn and they confirmed that there had been no attempt at any of the activity claimed by the caller.

The only information they had of mine was my name and bank account details, however they can’t do anything with that without my intervention, hence the phone call.

It quite rattled me for the rest of the day. There’s one thing for sure, I won’t get caught out again. If I ever receive a phone call like that again I will immediately put the phone down and ring the bank.

My bank incidentally say they would never ring to advise a customer of fraud. They send a text message to ask you to ring them ad if you don’t respond they temporarily block the account until you do.

Not sure what they do if you haven’t got a mobile mind .

Hugs

Jane xx

[paul...m]

I have a mobile mind it goes wherever my body goes .

[paul...m]

If you look at your cheques name sort code and account number are all there ,it also shows up if you pay someone online .
A few weeks ago I had a text message to withdraw money or transfer money from my work online collection account but only had 5 minuetes to to so. Thought safest thing as not a lot in that account was to fill up with diesel . Too late account was already frozen .
Turned out the collection firm used a the largest europe collecting bank based in Germany , Some light fingered employee disappeared with 16 billion euros so whilst investigations were taking place FCA froze all accounts . All back to normal after 4 days so some messages can be true but still be careful .

[Janey Dal]

I have a mobile mind it goes wherever my body goes .

This is very funny except Paul, being male, does not every take his mind with him wherever he goes!

I think what rattled me was that it was so slick. I see people on the TV who have been scammed and think “how did they fall for it?”. Now I know!

Hugs

Jane xx

[refandy]

It's very easy to spoof a phone number. Every 0800 number you dial has a 'real' number underneath.

My basic rule is if I didn't initiate the call then I don't give any personal details or agree to anything.

Also, if they suggest you call on a known number then always use a different phone - otherwise they simply stay on the line and pretend to be whoever you are calling.

Take care
Andy

[Janey Dal]

Hi Andy

Yes I’d heard about the ringing back and them still being on the line scam. I think that’s landlines though? I don’t think you can do it on a mobile?

I think the main thing here is to be extra vigilant. I generally don’t answer calls to my mobile that I don’t recognise but for some reason that day I did.

I had to ring my mum and advise her to be extra careful. She’s 90 and whilst has her buttons on, she is still easily Befuddled by technology.

I remember her ringing me several years ago to say she’d had a man on the phone asking for various details about her computer.

“It’s a scam mum!”

“Well I asked him if it was a scam and he said no!”

[refandy]

I don't know if it is possible with mobiles but I never risk it.

I recently reported a broadband problem which had to be passed on to BT Openreach to fix (I'm not with BT). Within 20 minutes I received a phone call from someone pretending to be from my ISP basically trying to convince me the problem was on my router and to download something which would give him access to my router (not my laptop he insisted). Needless to say I didn't.

If you do receive any scam calls then report them on https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

Andy

[Janey Dal]

Thanks for that Andy!

It’s scary really how easy it seems for them to get the information they need.

I suspect today’s younger folk are wiser to this but it’s a whole new ball game for me even with my IT knowledge which isn’t bad.

If these people put as much effort into getting a job as they do working out scams they would be much richer!

Hugs

Jane xx

[paul...m]

It is a job for them by the way what is first , third character of your bank code .Sorry I made a mistake can you give me second and fourth,

[MikeyB]

BT Openreach seems to be a leaky security company. I had genuine problems with my broadband, phoned the ever helpful Plusnet who arranged for an Openreach engineer to call, who fixed everything. Since then, I’ve had an array of calls, all hilariously amateurish, to tell me that my internet service will terminate in 24 hours and to fix things Press 1. One variant was if I wanted to check this, press 1 to speak to my manager ( who was probably drinking a coffee next to her). How anyone falls for these calls is beyond me.

I wouldn’t care, but every single bank and building society tells their customers that they would never ring them asking for bank details or passwords. There’s no accounting for stupidity, and as I am now an orphan I’ve got no elderly relatives to worry about. I’m the elderly relative, but I’ve got all my marbles and I’m tech savvy.