Phishing and refunds

treefrogjo

Hi

Yesterday at 3pm my mother (in her 70s) had a call from her building society to say that £60k had been transferred from her account on friday at 5pm in 6 separate transactions. It looks like she has been the victim of a phishing email and has now had her life savings cleared out.

The building society are not being very forthcoming with a refund and are "investigating" and have warned her that she may not get anything. They will let her know in ten days. Has anyone had experience of this before? Surely if the transactions left at 5pm fri and detected on monday then they would not have cleared yet anyway and could be stopped?

She is out of her mind with worry that she has lost her savings. Any suggestions on what to do or who to contact for help?

Thanks

maninthestreet

Did your mother actually respond to a phishing email with her account details?

sandraroffey

oh good lord, i do hope she didnt!!! please let us know what happens here.xx

aaron772

That just awful 60k i really hopr this gets sorted, what bank is she with? and have you spoken to thir fraud team?

____________________________
Dont be too quick to judge

treefrogjo

Yes she seems to recall she did get an email from "the bank" checking her security details and filled them in. When she told me that I realised she had been phished. Their fraud team won't tell her anything at the moment. I am just surprised that the transactions flagged up on their systems so that they called her but they then claim that she may not get the money back. What's the point in flagging it up then?

maninthestreet

treefrogjo wrote: »

Yes she seems to recall she did get an email from "the bank" checking her security details and filled them in. When she told me that I realised she had been phished. Their fraud team won't tell her anything at the moment. I am just surprised that the transactions flagged up on their systems so that they called her but they then claim that she may not get the money back. What's the point in flagging it up then?

Presumably the 'transfers' were to some other bank account? Surely such transfers can be reversed if detected soon enough?

Clive_Woody

treefrogjo wrote: »

Yes she seems to recall she did get an email from "the bank" checking her security details and filled them in. When she told me that I realised she had been phished. Their fraud team won't tell her anything at the moment. I am just surprised that the transactions flagged up on their systems so that they called her but they then claim that she may not get the money back. What's the point in flagging it up then?

Please also make sure you report this to the police and get a crime number.

CLLC

I really hope she does get her money back , it is such a shame about these phishing emails, they should really be ashamed of themselves!!!

So can you say what information she sent? I mean is all she sent was her acount number and sort code and security number?

Sorry for asking but i would like to know what details they need , i do not want scammers to get my account number and sort code to know that they can withdraw all my funds from that!

If that is all the details they need , they are on my paying in book , does that mean i can be scammed if i lose it and someone gets hold of it.

Afterall it does contain my name , account number and sort code

nomoneytoday

An account number and sort code is useless on its own.
My sort code is 40 05 30 a/c 51535293

If the bank can locate and/or stop the funds then there is a possibility of getting the money back. If it's not there any more, i.e. the ******s have spent it then it will be harder.

I guess this is a lesson for everyone else not to give out personal information in response to an email.

(The account number isn't actually mine but for Children in need)

faerie_girl

Whenever I have recieved phishing e-mails they have asked to 'log in' to the online banking through the link in the e-mail.
the link then forwards you to a site that looks like your banks. If you then type your username and password it forwards it to the scammers. Who use these to log in. It is not your account and sort code they use.

Banks always say not to click on the links in e-mails such as this. In any genuine e-mails they send there is never a link to their site to enter your details.

As unfortunate as this is for your mother she may find that the bank will not give her a refund as she gave out her details and password.

Idiophreak

faerie_girl wrote: »

As unfortunate as this is for your mother she may find that the bank will not give her a refund as she gave out her details and password.

This is such a tough thing to call...On the one hand, it's incredibly harsh to lose all your money to one of these scams. On the other hand, it's kinda like letting someone saying they're "the gas man" into your house, going out then trying to claim on your insurance for it...

Really hope OPs mum gets her cash back.

OP, did she tell the fraud dept that she'd been phished or not? They normally go through a list of things on the phone "have you given anyone else access to your PC? Have you used a public computer? have you sent your bank account details via email?" and so on.

When it happened to me, I almost got the impression they were going down a list trying to find reasons not to give my money back...

(of course, if you don't tell them that you'd been caught by a phisher, you, yourself become a fraudster..)