Real life examples

It was a Monday morning, as I was working from home and logging into my emails, when someone called me from my bank. They told me there’d been fraudulent activity on my account and to get a refund I’d need to share a one-time passcode which they’d text to me. I did as they asked, and they said that was all sorted – I’d receive a refund in an hour or so.

I was busy at work and wasn’t able to check my account until that night. To my horror, I saw £3,000 had been paid to a store I’d never even heard of. I called my bank and they told me they’d never called me that morning about a fraud refund. The one-time passcode I’d given to the person over the phone was to approve this £3,000 transaction – when I re-read the text with the passcode it did state that, I just hadn’t read it properly the first time.

I felt like such a fool – I’d been panicked when the person calling me mentioned fraud and I shared the passcode without thinking.

My daughter was at uni at the time when I received a text from her saying “Hi Mum, sorry I’ve had to get a new phone as I lost mine last night. Please save this new number”. I really didn’t think anything of it.

I didn’t consider the message I received the next day either, which read: “Hi Mum, can you transfer me some money. As I’ve had to pay for the new phone, I’m a bit short of cash to pay some bills.” She gave me her new student bank account details and I transferred over £500.

The following day, I was asked for more money – £1,000 – and at this point I grew suspicious. I called the number and it went straight to voicemail, so I asked my husband to call our daughter on her old number. He got through straight away and she said she hadn’t lost her phone and didn’t have a new number.

I called my bank to let them know I’d been scammed. I couldn't believe I fell for it, but also lucky that I didn't hand over even more money.

I’d always dreamed of going to Australia and last year I decided to bite the bullet and took out a credit card to pay for the trip. A few days later, I saw an ad on social media from a company I hadn’t heard of before, offering a 3-week holiday in Oz, including flights and accommodation for a fraction of the price I’d seen anywhere else. It was a one-day sale, so I had to move fast and called the number on the ad. The helpful advisor was lovely and talked me through the full itinerary – it sounded amazing.

I needed some thinking time, but the sales advisor warned there was only one seat available on the flights, so I’d best book now – and I had to pay in full to secure the deal. I remember thinking that I can’t miss out on this or I’ll regret it later, so I just went for it. I was told to expect an email confirmation that day.

The next day, I started to worry when the email hadn’t come through. I called my credit card company, who told me the transaction had gone through, but it wasn’t to a holiday company. It was to a money transfer site. At this point I realised I’d become a victim of fraud and the dream holiday was just that, a dream. I was heartbroken, but I also felt ashamed I’d fallen for such a scam.