Scammed!!!

Chloe4940

So yesterday I received a call from someone telling me they were from the lloyds fraud squad, immediately I became suspicious so checked the number that called me, the number showed up on my phone as "lloyds bank" linked with their website and local branch etc, the number also matched the number on the back of my debit card so I was reassured it was them.

The person on the phone came across very professional and went through some security information with me (at no point did I disclose any of my banking/card information) he was aware that I had 2 accounts open with lloyds and that one was a joint account with my partner, he was also aware of the balance of both of these accounts and confirmed these with me, as he had all of this information and was calling from the lloyds phone number I of course (stupidly) believed he was who he said.

He informed me from the start of the phone call that there had been some suspicious activity on my account from a location that I don't visit, he then went through the supposed transactions they had done and said that they had stopped them going through, he then put me on hold and consulted his supervisor for the next steps regarding my security, when he came back he said the best thing would be to open a new account entirely and said he would set it up, I heard him typing away and after a few minutes he asked me to send my money across to this new account.

After sending the money he said both me and my partner would be issued with new debit cards and I should get new internet banking details set up and I would receive a text message from them in a few minutes, I was of course very grateful so hung up the phone and waited.

After about 5 minutes I started to get a funny feeling so phoned the lloyds fraud squad just to check up and make sure everything was ok, of course I then found out it was a total scam!!

In hindsight I feel like an absolute idiot for falling for it and should have known better but in the moment I panicked and had reason to trust him, I have heard back from lloyds today and they have refused to refund us the money because I made the transaction, although I can understand this the scammer used their phone number and knew details about my account that he shouldn't have, I feel that lloyds have not protected my information and no one should have been able to see how many accounts I had and how much was in both accounts.

I should have a call tomorrow from a manager as I put a complaint in, do I have a leg to stand on regarding my security information?

I have also been informed that if you ring the lloyds number within 30 seconds a fraudster is able to pick up the phone, please be careful when dealing with banks over the phone and don't be as stupid as me!!!

[Deleted User]

Chloe4940 wrote: »

I have also been informed that if you ring the lloyds number within 30 seconds a fraudster is able to pick up the phone,

I'm afraid this is nonsense. How would a fraudster "pick up the 'phone" if you rang Lloyds direct?

Regardless, do you have a Consumer Rights issue?

elsien

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-get-your-money-back-after-a-scam

This suggests also reporting it to the police - they are unlikely to retrieve your money but a crime number may persuade the bank to take it more seriously.

Part of the fraud involves the scammer being able to stay on the line without you realising, so when you think you're phoning back you're still actually connected to the original scam call. The suggestion is to make the call to the proper number using a different phone.

Chloe4940

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I'm afraid this is nonsense. How would a fraudster "pick up the 'phone" if you rang Lloyds direct?

Regardless, do you have a Consumer Rights issue?

This is what I was told by lloyds directly and as they can ring from their phone number it could make sense that they would be able to answer calls

I believe I have posted this in the wrong section by mistake

[Deleted User]

Chloe4940 wrote: »

This is what I was told by lloyds directly and as they can ring from their phone number it could make sense that they would be able to answer calls

So if you ring Lloyds number, then someone other than the institution called might answer?

Who at Lloyds has told you this? That's a pretty serious security problem which would definitely have wider implications than small scale scams. As I said, it's nonsense. You've clearly misunderstood what was communicated to you.

TadleyBaggie

Chloe4940 wrote: »

This is what I was told by lloyds directly and as they can ring from their phone number it could make sense that they would be able to answer calls

Whoever told you that is completely wrong, it just can't happen.

What they can do however is spoofing the caller ID number, so they call from one number but it appears to come from another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

wealdroam

Chloe4940 wrote: »

This is what I was told by lloyds directly and as they can ring from their phone number it could make sense that they would be able to answer calls

Hmmm... that's not how it works.

Have a read of this newspaper article.

It explains how they can mimic your bank's phone number, and also the bit about "if you ring the lloyds number within 30 seconds a fraudster is able to pick up the phone".

Read the entire article.

MataNui

Yes. It is true that if you ring the loyds number the scammer will pick up. Well. Its sort of true. This is how it works.
The scammer calls you. You are suspicious of the call so you say you will get the proper loyds number and call them back. You hang up. They dont. The line remains open. You dial the Loyds number. They listen for the numbers being dialled then play a tone on the line so it sounds like its ringing the other side. Then another one of the scammers pretends to answer the call.

There was some stuff about this being stopped and either hang up would close the line so it may not be possible to do this any more but it certainly was possible (might still be, not sure though).

cono1717

Chloe4940 wrote: »

So yesterday I received a call from someone telling me they were from the lloyds fraud squad, immediately I became suspicious so checked the number that called me, the number showed up on my phone as "lloyds bank" linked with their website and local branch etc, the number also matched the number on the back of my debit card so I was reassured it was them.

The person on the phone came across very professional and went through some security information with me (at no point did I disclose any of my banking/card information) he was aware that I had 2 accounts open with lloyds and that one was a joint account with my partner, he was also aware of the balance of both of these accounts and confirmed these with me, as he had all of this information and was calling from the lloyds phone number I of course (stupidly) believed he was who he said.

He informed me from the start of the phone call that there had been some suspicious activity on my account from a location that I don't visit, he then went through the supposed transactions they had done and said that they had stopped them going through, he then put me on hold and consulted his supervisor for the next steps regarding my security, when he came back he said the best thing would be to open a new account entirely and said he would set it up, I heard him typing away and after a few minutes he asked me to send my money across to this new account.

After sending the money he said both me and my partner would be issued with new debit cards and I should get new internet banking details set up and I would receive a text message from them in a few minutes, I was of course very grateful so hung up the phone and waited.

After about 5 minutes I started to get a funny feeling so phoned the lloyds fraud squad just to check up and make sure everything was ok, of course I then found out it was a total scam!!

In hindsight I feel like an absolute idiot for falling for it and should have known better but in the moment I panicked and had reason to trust him, I have heard back from lloyds today and they have refused to refund us the money because I made the transaction, although I can understand this the scammer used their phone number and knew details about my account that he shouldn't have, I feel that lloyds have not protected my information and no one should have been able to see how many accounts I had and how much was in both accounts.

I should have a call tomorrow from a manager as I put a complaint in, do I have a leg to stand on regarding my security information?

I have also been informed that if you ring the lloyds number within 30 seconds a fraudster is able to pick up the phone, please be careful when dealing with banks over the phone and don't be as stupid as me!!!

Well I'm guessing they used your details you provided to make the transaction as though they were you, might be worth checking with lloyds if it was a landline or a mobile, then if it was a landline where the location of it is and if it is a mobile that it doesn't match the mobile number associated with your mobile banking. Lloyds should be able to claw the money back from the bank.

A tip for the future if you ever get a call from the fraud squad, don't give any details, ring back from a different phone or later on in the day. If they are the genuine article and you refuse to give them your details all they will do is block your account until you ring back.

Hoof_Hearted

Great sympathy for the OP. I have had a couple of genuine fraud calls from Santander where a foreign transaction has been tried on my account. As soon as you get the phone call, you do get a bit panicky. In the OP's case, is it an inside job? The scammer seemed to have a lot of genuine information.

takman

You really should have used some common sense and none of this would have happened!. Why would the fraud team who were supposedly able to open an new account for you not be able to transfer the money themselves?.