Credit Card Scam Victim

tricky_plus

Hi MSE'ers,

I'm hoping someone can help with this. My Mother has been scammed by an elaborate con into giving her internet banking password away and the conmen have spent £16k on her credit card.

The scammers called her on the house phone on Sunday evening, asked her a few security details then told her that her card had been used fraudulently in Vegas, they told her to call the number on the back of her card.

She hung up, picked the phone up again and dialed the number. Unfortunately this was part of the scam, the conmen had not hung up and just played a dial tone down the phoneline so she thought she was dialling the number but actually was still connected to them. they then convinced her to give them her internet banking passcode. They gave her a new one and told her to try it in a couple of hours.

When she tried the password they'd given, she found she was locked out of the internet banking so she called the bank and found out what they'd done. Apparently this is a common scam and the bank are refusing to refund the money as she gave out her password.

Is there anything we can do to convince the bank to refund the money? My Mother is 68 and retired with no way to pay back a £16k credit card debt, please help!

Many thanks,

Rich

eskbanker

tricky_plus wrote: »

Apparently this is a common scam

Indeed, see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2013/08/called-by-an-anti-fraud-team-watch-you-dont-get-scammed, which in itself was published well after this scam was established.

Unfortunately the article doesn't actually suggest anything helpful other than to contact your bank or card provider, I don't suppose the police will be particularly interested?

agrinnall

I would suggest that it should be reported to Action Fraud.

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

grumbler

eskbanker wrote: »

Indeed, see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2013/08/called-by-an-anti-fraud-team-watch-you-dont-get-scammed, which in itself was published well after this scam was established.

Remember that it takes two people to terminate a call, ...

I don't understand this. IMO it is nonsense.

tricky_plus

Which bit is nonsense?

My Mother put the phone down and they didn't so the call doesn't end. When she picked the phone up again they played a dialling tone down the phone so it sounded like a new call.

eskbanker

grumbler wrote: »

I don't understand this. IMO it is nonsense.

Agreed! It would be more accurate to say that it's only the caller who can actually terminate a call, even though the recipient can 'hang up' by replacing receiver or pressing a red button, etc, but of course that's not quite so snappy....

magpiecottage

I suggest a complaint to the bank in the first instance.

If that doesn't work, complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

grumbler

eskbanker wrote: »

Agreed! It would be more accurate to say that it's only the caller who can actually terminate a call, even though the recipient can 'hang up' by replacing receiver or pressing a red button, etc, but of course that's not quite so snappy....

It's a news to me that I cannot terminate a call if someone is calling me. What's the point? What if they simply forget/fail to terminate it? Does this mean that if I don't care about the cost of the call I can easily 'kill' anyone's landline simply by dialing their number?

eskbanker

magpiecottage wrote: »

I suggest a complaint to the bank in the first instance.

If that doesn't work, complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

But what have the bank done wrong here? Clearly a horrendous situation here for the victim but there's a big difference between appealing to the bank for some sort of goodwill gesture and trying to actually hold them accountable for something beyond their control.

eskbanker

grumbler wrote: »

It's a news to me that I cannot terminate a call if someone is calling me. What's the point? What if they simply forget/fail to terminate it? Does this mean that if I don't care about the cost of the call I can easily 'kill' anyone's landline simply by dialing their number?

That's the way I understood landlines to work, and this is stated as being the basis of the scam: "scammers encourage victims to hang up and call again to verify authenticity. But they can continue the call at their end, pretending to be the recipient of the second call"

grumbler

eskbanker wrote: »

But what have the bank done wrong here? Clearly a horrendous situation here for the victim but there's a big difference between appealing to the bank for some sort of goodwill gesture and trying to actually hold them accountable for something beyond their control.

At least they will do something to trace the transfers and to catch the criminals. If nobody complains, they will freely keep stealing.

Also, their security procedures seem to be not adequate if login details and a password are sufficient for transferring a big amount to a new payee.