Please help me !! Victim of a scam and I don't know what to do now

lilsymol

Hello! I'm hoping someone can help me and/or give me some advice. I need to speak to the financial ombudsman and I'm terrified of doing it wrong. 

My husband and I were the victims of a phone scam back in Febuary. They took all of our money, including tax returns and savings to see his parents in NZ. We haven't seen them for five years and his dad just turned 80. 

In total, around 11k.  

I'm going to give as much info below without rambling (hopefully). 

Some of this is emotional and may not be relevant, but from my understanding the ombudsman takes that sort of thing on board. I don't want to leave anything important out. 

What happened: 

My husband (O) works as an arborist (loud, stressful, dangerous environment). He was working away from home and received an NHS text to purchase covid tests. He had to pay postage so entered his info to do so. We were told afterwards that this was part one of the scam.

(He had been staying with friends who had just tested positive. We were trying to keep our stock of tests high as we were constantly visiting my vulnerable grandma.)

He then received a call while he was at work. The caller claimed to be from the bank (Starling). The caller had an area code consistent with the bank HQ in London. They claimed to be from the fraud department at Starling and that the payment to the "NHS" had been x10 and that they had blocked a charge for around £1300. 

The caller knew O's full name, address and other info. He was very thorough and O didn't question that the call was legitimately from Starling. 

The caller kept him on the phone for a long time, repeatedly putting him on hold, "speaking to other departments" etc. He told my husband that the scammers had installed spyware onto his phone and could take money from his account at any time. 

After being on the phone he told my husband that he had to move his money to keep it safe, it would be transferred to a safe account via a company called "Binance" and then returned to his account. Obviously he was really freaked out by this point but the caller calmed him down and reassured him. 

The caller guided him through everything as though he could see what O could see on his phone screen. He had O empty every savings space into the main account on both his business and personal accounts. Then he received two separate pop up requests in-app (one on business and one on personal) for the exact amount in each, to Binance. Everything he said was timed with the pop-ups in app, so O was further convinced.

The caller even gave O instructions on how to clear any spyware from his phone. O messaged me while he was on hold saying he was speaking to the bank and was so relieved they were helping him. He mentioned how relieved he was that the man was so competent and helpful multiple times. 

He was on the phone for around an hour in total. Once the money had been transferred the line went dead and that is when O began to panic. He tried to return the call but the number was fake. He then called customer support at Starling and we have been dealing with their customer support ever since.  

I wrote a letter to the bank with some help from my uncle who is an accountant. Obviously they don't want to give our money back and we have now reached a deadlock. 

They are refusing to return our money on the grounds that there would have been a note in app (on the pop ups) saying that Startling would never call you, and to be careful with transfers. The caller was basically puppeting O and told him to "just tap okay" etc. O doesn't remember any warnings on the pop-up as he was super stressed out by that point.

Some other info:

O is okay with technology but it's not his area. Both my husband and I have ADHD.

My grandad had just died suddenly in mid Jan and we were supporting my mum in caring for my Grandma who had dementia and cancer. 

My Grandma died in hospice in June, the funeral was July. 

This whole time I was very ill (a side effect to medication which has been resolved) and I was very sick with covid twice. So O was the sole earner in our household. 

After the scam my husband had a few work accidents resulting in trips to casualty. Firstly he sliced open his hand and a few weeks later his chainsaw kicked back into his face. He had 13 stitches around his eye and was very lucky not to have been killed. I'm confident this only happened because of stress; he's never had accidents before. 

Our joint account for bills wasn't touched so fortunately we were able to keep our heads above water. However with household bills going up I'm worried about the winter. 

A few weeks later we had a letter from the bank informing us that buying large amounts of crypto was not allowed, so I'm assuming that is what Binance really is. 

I don't understand why they didn't flag the activity as suspicious when his two accounts were entirely drained one by one to the same person. 

I'm dealing with this on his behalf as it upset him so much. I think he's dealing with trauma.

I'm grieving for my grandparents and supporting my mum as I try to get back to work post-illness.

I'm so stressed that just typing this out is making me shake! I'm terrified of missing something important when I speak to the ombudsman. 

If anyone can help me I would be so thankful. 

Lily 

  

lilsymol

I posted about this happening a few months ago, before the deadlock. I couldn't find my original post as I didn't know how to use the forum. 

grumbler

>> Help, I’ve been scammed ! 😩😖

lilsymol

grumbler said:

>> Help, I’ve been scammed ! 😩😖

thank you x 

lilsymol

A few people had commented on my previous saying he shouldn't have fallen for the scam. That would have been great if he hadn't but unfortunately this guy took him for a ride! 

We are having a really rough time atm. If you haven't got anything constructive to say please consider just not commenting. 

lilsymol

lilsymol said:

A few people had commented on my previous saying he shouldn't have fallen for the scam. That would have been great if he hadn't but unfortunately this guy took him for a ride! 

We are having a really rough time atm. If you haven't got anything constructive to say please consider just not commenting. 

I have inadvertently deleted the unkind comment on my last post. The others were mostly great !  

DE_612183

Have you spoken to the Police?

lilsymol

DE_612183 said:

Have you spoken to the Police?

Yes it was reported to the police on the day. We even had a PCSO stop by our house to check on us a few weeks later. Pretty sure there's nothing they can actually do. 

tacpot12

I honestly don't think you need to worry about presenting your case to the Financial Ombudsman. They will be dealing with many cases where the customers claim that the banks haven't taken enough care, and they will know what extra inforamtion they need from you if you don't provide it all in one go. However, you should do your best to provide everything in one go though. Write out your complaint in draft, be specific about what you think Starling should have done, or what their systems should have done, e.g. prevented transfers to Crypto providers if they are not entirely happy with their customers using such providers, then re-read it to make sure you have included everything.  

You do need to make your complaint though. Don't let the fact it is hard cause you to put it off. Time is of the essence. Get help from friends and/or family, if only to read the draft of your complaint and give you feedback on whether it makes sense. 

I would leave out all the stuff about your grandad, grandma, your own illness and his accidents. The Financial Ombudsman isn't going to decide in your favour because they feel sorry for you. You have to convince them that Starling did not do the right things, so complain about what Starling did, or did not do.  I would mention your husband's ADHD IF there is something about ADHD that makes him vulnerable to this sort of scam. I know nothing about ADHD, so can't say if there is something that might be relevant.  

lilsymol

tacpot12 said:

I honestly don't think you need to worry about presenting your case to the Financial Ombudsman. They will be dealing with many cases where the customers claim that the banks haven't taken enough care, and they will know what extra inforamtion they need from you if you don't provide it all in one go. However, you should do your best to provide everything in one go though. Write out your complaint in draft, be specific about what you think Starling should have done, or what their systems should have done, e.g. prevented transfers to Crypto providers if they are not entirely happy with their customers using such providers, then re-read it to make sure you have included everything.  

You do need to make your complaint though. Don't let the fact it is hard cause you to put it off. Time is of the essence. Get help from friends and/or family, if only to read the draft of your complaint and give you feedback on whether it makes sense. 

I would leave out all the stuff about your grandad, grandma, your own illness and his accidents. The Financial Ombudsman isn't going to decide in your favour because they feel sorry for you. You have to convince them that Starling did not do the right things, so complain about what Starling did, or did not do.  I would mention your husband's ADHD IF there is something about ADHD that makes him vulnerable to this sort of scam. I know nothing about ADHD, so can't say if there is something that might be relevant.  

Thanks that's really helpful. I genuinely didn't know if any of the information about my circumstances was relevant, it's been all encompassing and my brain is fried. My intention is to get the ball rolling this week. Thanks again 

eskbanker

lilsymol said:

They are refusing to return our money on the grounds that there would have been a note in app (on the pop ups) saying that Startling would never call you, and to be careful with transfers. The caller was basically puppeting O and told him to "just tap okay" etc. O doesn't remember any warnings on the pop-up as he was super stressed out by that point.

I'd suggest that it would be worth familiarising yourself with the provisions of the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) code, under which participating banks (including Starling) should refund victims of Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams, but only if customers didn't ignore Effective Warnings or weren't otherwise negligent:

https://www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Information-for-customers-CRM.pdf

In order to persuade the ombudsman service to rule in your favour, you'll need to demonstrate exactly how the bank's interpretation of events was flawed and in particular any shortfall between their actions and what they're obliged to do by legislation or regulation, i.e. offering opinions about how their anti-fraud measures could be tighter in spotting unusual transaction patterns is unlikely to be productive.

lilsymol said:

I need to speak to the financial ombudsman and I'm terrified of doing it wrong.

It would seem sensible to deal with the ombudsman service in writing rather than by phone, as this should allow marshalling and structuring of arguments coherently and accurately.

lilsymol said:

I'm terrified of missing something important when I speak to the ombudsman.

The principle is that you simply provide the ombudsman with exactly the same information that you used to support your complaint to the bank, as you're escalating to FOS specifically on the basis that the bank didn't respond adequately to that complaint, so there's no need to come up with all sorts of additional data unless or until they ask for it.

tacpot12 said:

I would mention your husband's ADHD IF there is something about ADHD that makes him vulnerable to this sort of scam. I know nothing about ADHD, so can't say if there is something that might be relevant.  

It's only relevant if it had already been highlighted to Starling before the scam, i.e. giving them the opportunity to make any practical adjustments to the way in which the account was managed - if Starling were unaware of his vulnerability then they can hardly be expected to accommodate it.