Victim of romance fraud

Cardriver45

My widowed mother was a victim of what the police termed a very sophisticated romance fraud where she met someone on a dating website and over the next 11 months, the suspect was in daily contact both by WhatsApp and on the phone with my mother. The suspect used a very elaborate scheme where he made out he had inherited a house in South Africa, even sending what looked like an official signed court document and pictures of what was supposedly him with his son right from when his son was a baby. He even gave my Mum a bank account number to try to pay what the suspect claimed was inheritance tax that the S African government was demanding so my Mum could try to pay it for him. He said that his account had been frozen as he was trying to use it when he was out of the country. He then claimed he had sold the house and gave my Mum another account number to check that the supposed buyers had paid the selling fees into it and the money was there.

Not only did the suspect manage to con £4250 out of my mother, but he also tricked her into transferring very large amounts of money from what he claimed were his friends who paid into her account which she then sent onto the suspect as cryptocurrency. She also bought gift cards for what he claimed was his teenage son and he manipulated my mother by claiming how upset and how much his son was missing him whilst he was stuck in South Africa. The suspect also used my Mum's card to buy items of clothing and convinced my mother into sending them to him that he claimed he was buying for his lawyer to thank him for helping out in sorting out the tax he owed on the supposedly inherited house.

My Mother then had a visit from the local Police last week enquiring why large amounts of money were being paid into her account, over £100k, and that they suspected money laundering.

We spoke to an officer the next day from the investigating police force and they said that from the report from the officer who visited her house they could tell that she was obviously a victim of romance fraud and clearly not the instigator. It turns out that the supposed friends that were transferring money were also other victims being scammed.

As you can imagine my mother is devastated that not only was she deceived by someone that she thought cared about her, but she was also dragged into a criminal scheme after spending her whole life working with vulnerable children as both a foster carer and social worker, so would never dream of becoming involved with any criminal activity. 

We feel the bank, Natwest, has let my mother down as twice they froze her account and then unfroze her account again and let her continue after saying they had reviewed the account. They asked her about it and she told them that she had met the suspect and that they both had lost their partners and she relayed the story the suspect had told her and what the suspect had told her to say. She explained that she was transferring money that his friends were paying into her account and buying cryptocurrency to pay for the suspect's repairs on the house he was trying to sell and for living costs whilst he was staying in South Africa. The bank even suggested adding the suspect's name onto her account so he could have a debit card sent to him to use. Surly the bank should have realised this was a scam on a vulnerable person as there was such a large amount of money, like I mentioned before over £100k, being transferred through her account and she was buying large amounts of cryptocurrency suddenly after never having purchased any before? They should have at least contacted the banks of the people who were paying the money into her account to check and contacted the police.

Firstly as £1500 was paid by my Mother into another UK bank account we plan on claiming that back through the push payment scheme and also seeing if we can claim the other amounts through her debit card.

Do people on here feel that we have any recourse to sue the bank as it seems to us that they have not fulfilled their duty to protect a vulnerable customer who was obviously being scammed? 

kayleighali

You have mentioned vulnerable a couple of times, this is a bit of a contentious word. Does your mother have a condition which makes her vulnerable and unable to understand the warning messages banks give when transferring money?

I'm not saying you can't go down that road as I don't have the knowledge, but I do know that you would have to clarify what the vulnerability is and why she was unable to understand the bank warning systems. If there is a vulnerability, they may ask why a Power of Attorney wasn't in place etc.

Just some things to think about, I really hope you get things sorted

mab3000

Sorry to hear what’s happened to your mother. Sounds like she has been caught up in something nasty. 

Why was her account frozen by NatWest? Was it because the account was under investigation? Or was it frozen as they were concerned about fraudulent activity on the account, for example debit card payments that were out of character? 

How did your mother do the £1500 bank transfer to the Uk bank account, online banking? In branch? Over the phone? 

Cardriver45

kayleighali said:

You have mentioned vulnerable a couple of times, this is a bit of a contentious word. Does your mother have a condition which makes her vulnerable and unable to understand the warning messages banks give when transferring money?

I'm not saying you can't go down that road as I don't have the knowledge, but I do know that you would have to clarify what the vulnerability is and why she was unable to understand the bank warning systems. If there is a vulnerability, they may ask why a Power of Attorney wasn't in place etc.

Just some things to think about, I really hope you get things sorted

Thanks for your reply. She was classified as a vulnerable person by the NHS for the covid vaccines, when I phoned the police as advised by the bank to find out why they sent someone round rather than just phone her they said it was because she was classified as a vulnerable person. Also as a widow with 3 disabled sons and who was left with a large amount of debt when my father passed away, she was susceptible to being manipulated by someone who was showing her kindness and affection. Even the bank bought the story that the suspect used.

Brie

You (well actually your mother) should write a letter to NatWest to complain about the lack of support and bad handling of the situation.  Keep it as factual as possible without getting emotional about the romance side of it.  Have it in complete date order so that it is easy for them to see what has gone wrong and when.  At the end stated concisely what you feel was done wrong and what you want done about it.  

People who work in customer service for a bank are as good or bad at their job as in any other industry.  It's possible that if someone different had been dealing with your mom things would have been handled very differently.  Perhaps the individuals she dealt with didn't have the right training or support to help them deal with a complicated bit of fraud. 

Most banks have gotten much better about helping spot fraud and helping people deal with sensitive situations.  They've also for the most part stopped accounts/cards from being used to buy crytocurrency.  I don't know if NatWest has but RBS which is the same group now have warnings for online banking against these purchases because of the connection to fraud.  These warnings don't get added suddenly - it's likely a lengthy process to take these steps so possibly NatWest fraud team were already aware that these were warning signs of something going awry.

Good luck with it - I hope your mom recovers some/most/all of her money and can overcome the emotional turmoil as well.

Brie

Ah - re your comment about vulnerability.....does she have any kind of care marker on her account(s)?  Or is it that the police are aware she is vulnerable.

Being vulnerable for vaccines can be very different than being financially vulnerable.  Her mental state will be a crucial concern of course. 

But the massive change of pattern of behaviour is a big tell for fraud.

kaMelo

Cardriver45 said:

My widowed mother was a victim of what the police termed a very sophisticated romance fraud where she met someone on a dating website and over the next 11 months, the suspect was in daily contact both by WhatsApp and on the phone with my mother. The suspect used a very elaborate scheme where he made out he had inherited a house in South Africa, even sending what looked like an official signed court document and pictures of what was supposedly him with his son right from when his son was a baby. He even gave my Mum a bank account number to try to pay what the suspect claimed was inheritance tax that the S African government was demanding so my Mum could try to pay it for him. He said that his account had been frozen as he was trying to use it when he was out of the country. He then claimed he had sold the house and gave my Mum another account number to check that the supposed buyers had paid the selling fees into it and the money was there.

Not only did the suspect manage to con £4250 out of my mother, but he also tricked her into transferring very large amounts of money from what he claimed were his friends who paid into her account which she then sent onto the suspect as cryptocurrency. She also bought gift cards for what he claimed was his teenage son and he manipulated my mother by claiming how upset and how much his son was missing him whilst he was stuck in South Africa. The suspect also used my Mum's card to buy items of clothing and convinced my mother into sending them to him that he claimed he was buying for his lawyer to thank him for helping out in sorting out the tax he owed on the supposedly inherited house.

My Mother then had a visit from the local Police last week enquiring why large amounts of money were being paid into her account, over £100k, and that they suspected money laundering.

We spoke to an officer the next day from the investigating police force and they said that from the report from the officer who visited her house they could tell that she was obviously a victim of romance fraud and clearly not the instigator. It turns out that the supposed friends that were transferring money were also other victims being scammed.

As you can imagine my mother is devastated that not only was she deceived by someone that she thought cared about her, but she was also dragged into a criminal scheme after spending her whole life working with vulnerable children as both a foster carer and social worker, so would never dream of becoming involved with any criminal activity. 

We feel the bank, Natwest, has let my mother down as twice they froze her account and then unfroze her account again and let her continue after saying they had reviewed the account. They asked her about it and she told them that she had met the suspect and that they both had lost their partners and she relayed the story the suspect had told her and what the suspect had told her to say. She explained that she was transferring money that his friends were paying into her account and buying cryptocurrency to pay for the suspect's repairs on the house he was trying to sell and for living costs whilst he was staying in South Africa. The bank even suggested adding the suspect's name onto her account so he could have a debit card sent to him to use. Surly the bank should have realised this was a scam on a vulnerable person as there was such a large amount of money, like I mentioned before over £100k, being transferred through her account and she was buying large amounts of cryptocurrency suddenly after never having purchased any before? They should have at least contacted the banks of the people who were paying the money into her account to check and contacted the police.

Firstly as £1500 was paid by my Mother into another UK bank account we plan on claiming that back through the push payment scheme and also seeing if we can claim the other amounts through her debit card.

Do people on here feel that we have any recourse to sue the bank as it seems to us that they have not fulfilled their duty to protect a vulnerable customer who was obviously being scammed? 

There is no such thing as a "push payment scheme" and whether the money gets returned very much depends upon whether there is any money left in that bank once notified. Other than that it's whether the bank feels a refund is due under the CRM model.
 As to the debit card, were these purchases or money transfers? Again it's not as straightforward as asking for the money back.

What recourse, if any, is possible will very much depend upon specifics and the exact timeline in which things happened.
As above, you keep mentioning "vulnerable" but what specifically is it that makes her vulnerable and are the bank aware of those vulnerabilities?  Just being older doesn't make you vulnerable and many older people would object to the implication simple due to age.

As the police have already become involved then  you're going to have to work with both the bank and police but the bank freezing the account is the bank protecting your mother, it also isn't usually an easy thing to unfreeze it.
Your mother would have had to answer some in depth questions about the account, payments made and received etc. Only if they satisfied the bank there was nothing to worry about would they un freeze it..
Ultimately If it isn't solved to your mother's satisfaction then she has the option to make a complaint and if need be take it to the FOS should the bank not resolve it to her satisfaction. 

Cardriver45

mab3000 said:

Sorry to hear what’s happened to your mother. Sounds like she has been caught up in something nasty. 

Why was her account frozen by NatWest? Was it because the account was under investigation? Or was it frozen as they were concerned about fraudulent activity on the account, for example debit card payments that were out of character? 

How did your mother do the £1500 bank transfer to the Uk bank account, online banking? In branch? Over the phone? 

Thanks for your reply. She just told me that the first time the bank stopped her card and didn't freeze the account. They said it was because she was buying cryptocurrency and asked why she was buying this and why was all this money being paid into her account. So she explained to the fraud department that the money was from the suspect's friends and the story the suspect sold to my mother. They asked her if she was being manipulated and obviously she said no as she didn't think she was and the bank just accepted that. 

The second time they didn't give a reason and just said they were reviewing the account and emailed to say they had reviewed it and then unfroze it again.

They also said in their fraud investigation email after my mum reported it that they may close her account as she had broken the terms and conditions because it's a personal account and she is not allowed to pass money from one person to another through her account. She had previously told the bank she was doing this when her card was stopped and it was never mentioned by the bank that she wasn't allowed to do this and they just let her continue. The bank are not closing her account now and allowed her access to it again even though she has told them that the suspect has all the details. She will be closing the account herself.

She paid the £1500 by phoning the bank and they transferred it. They queried it as the names on the account didn't match, it was James and not Jane as she originally said, but that was the only query.  

Cardriver45

kaMelo said:

There is no such thing as a "push payment scheme" and whether the money gets returned very much depends upon whether there is any money left in that bank once notified. Other than that it's whether the bank feels a refund is due under the CRM model.
 As to the debit card, were these purchases or money transfers? Again it's not as straightforward as asking for the money back.

What recourse, if any, is possible will very much depend upon specifics and the exact timeline in which things happened.
As above, you keep mentioning "vulnerable" but what specifically is it that makes her vulnerable and are the bank aware of those vulnerabilities?  Just being older doesn't make you vulnerable and many older people would object to the implication simple due to age.

As the police have already become involved then  you're going to have to work with both the bank and police but the bank freezing the account is the bank protecting your mother, it also isn't usually an easy thing to unfreeze it.
Your mother would have had to answer some in depth questions about the account, payments made and received etc. Only if they satisfied the bank there was nothing to worry about would they un freeze it..
Ultimately If it isn't solved to your mother's satisfaction then she has the option to make a complaint and if need be take it to the FOS should the bank not resolve it to her satisfaction. 

The bank has already unfrozen her account even though she has told them that the suspect has all her details.

As far as the police are concerned they have just said report it to action fraud. My Mum has names of other potential victims but the police don't seem interested.

I didn't really understand what it meant by vulnerability. She has a lung condition but doesn't have anything that would make her mentally vulnerable. Only that she was emotionally vunerable. 

As far as the push payment scheme, what is this that is mentioned on Natwests site?

https://personal.natwest.com/personal/fraud-and-security/app-code.html

Cardriver45

Also there's this template letter on which

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/letter/letter-to-complain-to-your-bank-about-app-fraud-under-code-aH3vh9g0GHl6

elsien

For information, definition of vulnerable with regards to adult social care as per the Care Act and the safeguarding threshold. 

The Care Act 2014 has superseded previous definition of vulnerable, and s42 now identifies ‘an adult at risk.’ An adult at risk of abuse or neglect is defined as someone who has needs for care and support, who is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect and as a result of their care needs - is unable to protect themselves. 

With regards to the latter, being older or the victim of a fraud does not automatically make someone vulnerable. If she has all her faculties, does not have any care needs, is not subject to coercive control and is well able to manage her day to day affairs then she is not vulnerable in the sense you appear to be thinking that she is. 

She has unfortunately been the victim of a very sophisticated fraud, as are many other people for a variety of reasons.