Scam from bank

jack_tyler

Hello everyone. On the 24th Sept I was scammed out of £4,790.30 . I cant believe that this has happened to me, and since it happened I have been struggling to sleep.

I received a phone call on the 24th from my bank, Nat West. It actually came up on my phone "Nat West" so I answered it. The guy I spoke to said that he was from the Fraud Team and wanted to confirm some transactions with me as they had been trying to contact me about suspicious activity on my account. He asked me to confirm the 1st & 4th digit of my online banking pin (which Nat West do when you ring them), he then asked me to confirm the 1st, 5th & 8th character of my online banking password (which again Nat West do when you ring them), so nothing suspicious so far. He then went on to ask me if I had tried to set up a direct debit to a life insurance company based in Glasgow, I said no. He then said he was going to read through some recent transactions, and wanted me to confirm if they had been done by me, which he did. He read out about 5 that I had actually done, but then there was one that I hadn't, which was for a John Lewis based in London. I said no that one was not me and he said, "in that case then im afraid it looks like your current account has been compromised, so we need to rectify this for you, please bear with me". After about 10 mins, he came back on the phone and asked me if I had my debit card, I went to my purse to check and it wasn't there, so I told him no I dont have it, I must of lost it, he told me not to worry as he would order me a new one with a new pin number.  He asked me if I have the Nat West mobile banking app on my phone, I said yes, he then asked me to log in which I did. While I was doing that, he asked me if I log in using Biometrics, I said no I use a password, he then suggested using Biometrics in the future as it is more secure. When I logged in, I noticed that £5,000 had been transferred from my savings account to my current account. I did not do this, it had already been done when I logged in. I told the man this and he said "im afraid it also looks like your savings account has been compromised, so again we will need to rectify this for you, please bear with me. He came back on the phone and asked me to log into my mobile banking app again, go on to payments, then set up a new payment, then put my own name in, and the amount £4,790.30 and then he gave me a sort code and account number. I asked him what the reason for this was and he said "because your accounts have been compromised we need to safeguard your funds as this is an account we use for that purpose". I said but Nat West would never ask you to move money from accounts, so how do I know you are who you say you are, he said dont worry I will send you confirmation on your phone, which he did, I got a text from Nat West. So again I had no reason to believe he was not genuine. At the end of the phone call, he said he would ring me back the following day to continue with setting up the safeguarding account. As I was still very confused by what had happened, I rang the bank back and told them about the phone call I had just had, and it was at this point that the woman I spoke to said, "im so sorry but it looks like you have been scammed". I burst into tears and felt sick. The scam was reported the same day, and since then I have been waiting for an outcome. I have been told by Nat West that they beneficiary bank is Santander and they will contact them and explain what has happened. But I am panicing like mad, and I can not sleep at night worrying in case I dont get this money back. This money was left to me by my late husband, and it was money I was using to live off. Please please can anyone tell me what my chances are of getting this money back?. Not only that, but these b***ards had changed my address to an address in London!!!

Grumpy_chap

Have you reported this to the police?

Aylesbury_Duck

You need to report this to the police and contact NatWest regularly to check on the progress of their investigation.

macman

If I'm understanding this correctly, they had already accessed your online account, because they could quote you some recent transactions, and move money between accounts. But in order to move the money out to their own transit account, they needed to get you to authorise the transaction to set up a new payee, which additionally occurs once you are already logged in. Is that what you did? 
It's also unclear how they accessed your account, and whether this is related to the loss/theft of your card?

jack_tyler

Grumpy_chap said:

Have you reported this to the police?

Yes i did

jack_tyler

macman said:

If I'm understanding this correctly, they had already accessed your online account, because they could quote you some recent transactions, and move money between accounts. But in order to move the money out to their own transit account, they needed to get you to authorise the transaction to set up a new payee, which additionally occurs once you are already logged in. Is that what you did? 
It's also unclear how they accessed your account, and whether this is related to the loss/theft of your card?

Yes that is correct, they had already accessed my online account. To move the money they instructed me to authorise a new payee, but told me to enter my own name as the new payee. I dont know how they accessed my account but I have an update today which I have started a new thread for

mjm3346

"So again I had no reason to believe he was not genuine"

apart from the fact that we have been told time and time again a bank will not ask you to move money in this way

cx6

They were probably able to log on because when they tried to log on themselves they were asked for the 1st, 4th and 8th digits of your password and you gave that info to them which they then entered on the screen. Only a guess of course.

They could probably transfer the savings money to your current account (to scare you) as internal account transfers do not require 2FA, whereas paying to an external account would.

Jenni_D

jack_tyler said:

macman said:

If I'm understanding this correctly, they had already accessed your online account, because they could quote you some recent transactions, and move money between accounts. But in order to move the money out to their own transit account, they needed to get you to authorise the transaction to set up a new payee, which additionally occurs once you are already logged in. Is that what you did? 
It's also unclear how they accessed your account, and whether this is related to the loss/theft of your card?

Yes that is correct, they had already accessed my online account. To move the money they instructed me to authorise a new payee, but told me to enter my own name as the new payee. I dont know how they accessed my account but I have an update today which I have started a new thread for

Why on earth would you do that? 🙄 And where is it?

jack_tyler

Hello, I put a post on here the other day regarding how I was a victim of a scam. I have had an email today from my bank saying that they have now heard back from the beneficiary bank in relation to my claim and following investigations have found that there where partial funds remaining in the beneficiary account for Nat West to recover on my behalf and that amount is £365.95, which has been credited back to my account. They then go on to say "we are sorry we have not been able to reimburse you for your outstanding loss and we know this is not the outcome you were hoping for. If I wish to discuss the matter further please contact them. Which I have this morning and told them that I was told by two different advisors "please dont worry, you will get your money back, this is not your fault". That has now been passed on to be investigated further. But if the outcome is still the same, is there anything I can do to recover the remaining losses?

MovingForwards

It's a lot easier for people to follow the history, and guidance offered, if you keep to the same thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6305960/scam-from-bank#latest