Helen Skelton's bank refunding scam as goodwill gesture

[Deleted User]

Some rich kid gets scammed out of £70K who probably earns more than that per year to start with. Yet I bet folk on low incomes who may get scammed out of £500 or £1K will have a harder job getting it refunded.

hoc

"The 36-year-old Countryfile presenter has said she was "embarrassed" about falling for a trick in which she was informed of suspicious activity on her bank account and led her to revealing details that saw her life savings being taken.

Helen revealed that she was sucked in by the trap because the caller seemed so 'nice and genuine' about a scam that had allegedly happened on her account. She has decided to share the full details of her experience in a documentary for ITV, so that others can see how easy it is to fall into the fraudsters' trap."

Em no it's not that easy, your bank won't call or text you and ask for you to confirm your security details. This should now be common knowledge in 2019 if not already common sense.

"The nature of the deception also meant that Helen was not entitled to any of her money back, and this left her deeply upset."

Obviously. Just as you shouldn't get your money back if you fall for a Nigerian prince/widow/lottery winner email scam either.

"The good news for Helen is that the Financial Ombudsman and Action Fraud — the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime — has learned that her bank, as a gesture of goodwill, they have refunded around 90 per cent of her lost money but not everyone will be quite so lucky. Helen admitted: "I know I’m very lucky. I had a lot of support but I also really had to push. Not everyone is able to do that."

I would have said she should donate this to charity given she probably made half that amount just making the documentary which pressured the bank into paying and between her TV career and her husband's professional sports she doesn't need to use her name for what is her own fault. Except apparently this £70K was "her entire life savings...it was for her kids". She seems to be very bad with money in that case. I wish her the best of luck.