Scam cleaned out my bank account

k_man

ZeroSum said:

Another who keeps a silly amount in a current account missing out on interest & putting themselves at greater risk from scammers, gets scammed.

Also If you only keep limited funds in current accounts, scammers tens not to be interested as less to scam

Less whether the funds are in current account, more whether in the same system as the current account.

i.e. a saving account in the current account bank has no more protection.

Matt1510

ZeroSum said:

Another who keeps a silly amount in a current account missing out on interest & putting themselves at greater risk from scammers, gets scammed.

Also If you only keep limited funds in current accounts, scammers tens not to be interested as less to scam

Nonsense, scammers tend to be unaware of any potential victims account balance.
It's opportunist theft.

MalMonroe

Some really harsh and judgemental comments on this thread - I expect the OP is regretting saying anything. I love how some think they are 'normal', whatever that is. And how those people seem to look down on other people. In fact, victim blaming. 

The OP's son is the victim here. Just because unscrupulous people are trying to scam left, right and centre doesn't mean we should all lose empathy for the people who are scammed. Even 'normal' people have been known to be fooled. But thank goodness for 'normality' eh? I'm frustrated on your behalf by the ignorance displayed. 

One of the nastiest comments has received 19 'thanks'!  I pity you all and hope you manage to stumble through life without making any mistakes whatsoever.

OP - please read the information in the following link.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/05/more-protection-for-money-transfer-scam-victims-from-today/

Particularly the bit about vulnerable customers. It's from 2019 but is probably still relevant as no-one from MSE has yet edited it. And they're usually quite on the ball about things like that.

Do please try not to worry. And also, please do ignore most of the comments on here. Some are quite appalling, in my opinion. 

If the bank does simply refuse to help, I'd try the Financial Ombudsman, you can apply online for that service. Given that your son IS vulnerable, I think he should be helped as much as possible. 

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

enthusiasticsaver

All you can do really is alert Starling to your sons vulnerable condition if they were not aware of it and hope they find in his favour.  Honestly though I bank with Starling and there are warnings whenever you send payments that no one will ever ask for security details from the bank and to be aware of scammers.   In the future it  might not be wise for him to have access to that sort of amount at his young age even if he did not have SEN.  For that reason I do think you and your son need to accept a modicum of  responsibility for this especially if you did not make the bank aware that he was vulnerable.  I hope though that at least they refund some of it. 

elsien

He’s 18. He’s an adult. He may be more easily persuaded because of the Asperger’s but there are some highly intelligent people out there who are on the spectrum. It’s his choice what he has access to but however vulnerable he may be, if he has capacity around his finances (which presumably he does if he’s got 10K at age 18) he could take it back any time he wished to do so if it was stashed elsewhere. And it’s his decision whether or not to tell the bank that he has Asperger’s.  Vulnerable does not mean incapable. 
That doesn’t help the son to regain access to his money - at this stage it’s letting the investigation take its course. 

When you say he was forced to hand over his details, what does that mean in practice? 

Starling bank were signed up to the Authorised Push Payment voluntary code - not sure if that’s still in place, and it also depends how much care the person took but it’s worth reading up about. Once the bank has made its decision then 
there is the option to take it to the Financial Ombudsman if your son disagrees with the outcome. 

And to @Zero_Sum, I have more than 10K sitting in my current account for perfectly valid reasons that I’m not going to share on here. Doesn’t mean someone is daft for doing that. 

Section62

MalMonroe said:

One of the nastiest comments has received 19 'thanks'!  I pity you all and hope you manage to stumble through life without making any mistakes whatsoever.

I think you've misunderstood that post.

It wasn't aimed at the OP or the OP's son, it was aimed at the idea that the majority of people should be restricted to payments of £500 max to a new payee for 24 hours.  The consequences of such a restrictive approach would be far reaching.

Perhaps it was a mistake to use the word 'normal' instead of 'majority'?  Perhaps the thoughtfulness and tolerance you (rightly) imply/suggest should be shown to others could have been shown by yourself to that poster and the (now 20) people who have reacted positively to the post?

Section62

pd1000 said:

My son was contacted by phone by some scammers...

Just checking - the thread title says "Scam cleaned out my bank account".

Is the account yours, or your son's?

If the account is yours, but you let your son use it, that would put you in a completely different situation to the one most responses so far have assumed.

If the thread title should read "Scam cleaned out my son's bank account" then ignore the above.

ZeroSum

Matt1510 said:

ZeroSum said:

Another who keeps a silly amount in a current account missing out on interest & putting themselves at greater risk from scammers, gets scammed.

Also If you only keep limited funds in current accounts, scammers tens not to be interested as less to scam

Nonsense, scammers tend to be unaware of any potential victims account balance.
It's opportunist theft.

They're unaware at the start true. But once they ask questions & the victim tells them, its game on. The BBC had a scammers programme on daytime tele where this was pretty much the case. People who had very little in the bank, the scammers gave up as it wasn't worth their while.

ZeroSum

k_man said:

ZeroSum said:

Another who keeps a silly amount in a current account missing out on interest & putting themselves at greater risk from scammers, gets scammed.

Also If you only keep limited funds in current accounts, scammers tens not to be interested as less to scam

Less whether the funds are in current account, more whether in the same system as the current account.

i.e. a saving account in the current account bank has no more protection.

There is that also. Handy to have a few accounts & spread it about

ZeroSum

elsien said:

He’s 18. He’s an adult. He may be more easily persuaded because of the Asperger’s but there are some highly intelligent people out there who are on the spectrum. It’s his choice what he has access to but however vulnerable he may be, if he has capacity around his finances (which presumably he does if he’s got 10K at age 18) he could take it back any time he wished to do so if it was stashed elsewhere. And it’s his decision whether or not to tell the bank that he has Asperger’s.  Vulnerable does not mean incapable. 
That doesn’t help the son to regain access to his money - at this stage it’s letting the investigation take its course. 

When you say he was forced to hand over his details, what does that mean in practice? 

Starling bank were signed up to the Authorised Push Payment voluntary code - not sure if that’s still in place, and it also depends how much care the person took but it’s worth reading up about. Once the bank has made its decision then 
there is the option to take it to the Financial Ombudsman if your son disagrees with the outcome. 

And to @Zero_Sum, I have more than 10K sitting in my current account for perfectly valid reasons that I’m not going to share on here. Doesn’t mean someone is daft for doing that. 

You are daft for throwing away potential interest earnings. More so that nowadays you can have the money in current account within seconds via faster payments