Scam?

jaypers

Great news regarding the Bank and progress made. Strongly recommend he never engages with them again…….to speak to them to say he isn’t going to pay may well be the beginning of him being sucked in again. I hope not but it’s a risk. Good news anyway.

[Deleted User]

Would just like to update.

The bank my relative enganged with was Santander.  He spoke to their Fraud department who were very helpful and supportive,  He has read the posts on here, and finally decided to finish the scam  

They phoned this afternoon and he told them that he was not going through with it, and they replied that their legal department would contact him as he had signed the contract.

He has now blocked the numbers on his phone, and is going to block all international numbers, also blocked them from emailing.

Hope he has learned not to be so trusting, and not to speak to cold callers.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

mebu60

Interesting that it was Santander, frequently panned on here for their perceived over-zealous anti-fraud measures! 

mikb

Sg28 said:

 Western Union won't be as helpful as his bank were. 

Depending on where they are based and how bothered they are, nor will the nice courier that will call at the door to collect cash in a completely secure and not at all scamtastic way ...

artyboy

Ivkoto said:

Tell your relative to watch "The Beekeeper" with Jason Statham
https://g.co/kgs/VbGRnYU

Having accidentally watched that overly derivative pile of crud, I can only assume you feel he needs to be further punished for his naivity... 

gelato_cat

[Deleted User] said:

Would just like to update.

The bank my relative enganged with was Santander.  He spoke to their Fraud department who were very helpful and supportive,  He has read the posts on here, and finally decided to finish the scam  

They phoned this afternoon and he told them that he was not going through with it, and they replied that their legal department would contact him as he had signed the contract.

He has now blocked the numbers on his phone, and is going to block all international numbers, also blocked them from emailing.

Hope he has learned not to be so trusting, and not to speak to cold callers.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

That's a great result!  Thank you for sharing.  I hope he gets some peace from the scammers now.

Rollinghome

Good for him.  He did exactly the right thing and should be proud of himself. 

These evil low-life can turn a comfortable retirement into poverty and totally destroy lives when they get away with it.  We're all at risk. Hope he'll warn others who might get their phone-calls how they operate.

jaypers

There is a valuable lesson here that we must all look out for this sort of thing happening, with a particular focus on our elderly of vulnerable relatives. It happened to a friend of mines dad recently……different type of scam but it involved a phone call and him being tricked out of money. My friend is very switched on to this type of thing and had also coached her dad about the risks, regardless of which he still fell for it. She was on it very quickly and they managed to recover their money from their Bank so they were lucky. It’s happening under our noses all of the time. 

Rollinghome

Please also remember that the guy who these people tried to scam might be reading this.  

He hasn't been "brainwashed".  He has been simply the target of would-be thieves using ruthless and well practised, high-pressure sales techniques. He's dealt with those low-life and let's hope he never hears from them or their like again.  If he does, then he is now more knowledgable and better equipped to deal with them.

This type of scam can catch anyone, regardless of age, so we shouldn't assume that because the intended victim is elderly he must be loosing his marbles.  

I'm likely to be of a similar age as him, if not older, and understand that though we might be a little slower than we once were, we also have the edge of life experience. We very much appreciate good intentions, but don't want to be treated as backward children.  Doing so isn't good for anyone's confidence.

Let's just wish him well, and be ready with suggestions if he asks for them.

eskbanker

Rollinghome said:

eskbanker said:

Rollinghome said:

eskbanker said:

gt94sss2 said:

eskbanker said:

gt94sss2 said:
If your relative don't take action themselves,  I suggest you report the issue as well as telling their bank what is occurring so they can take preventive action.

What preventive action do you think they can take if receiving a warning from a third party with no authority on the account?  How would you feel if your ability to pay someone was affected by something the bank had been told by (what is to them) a random stranger?

It means they can flag the customer as potentially vulnerable for instance and apply greater scrutiny to unusual transactions.

I'm not saying giving over the head of the account holder directly to their bank is my preferred response but it is an option. 

As for what they or the police/bank can do

https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/news-and-insight/blog/vulnerable-victims-notifications-bringing-together-banks-and-law-enforcement

Fraud is usually reported via Action Fraud (https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime) and I would encourage the OP to assist their relative to report it.

I'm all for OP assisting their relative in reporting potential/likely fraud but still don't believe it's viable for OP to approach the relative's bank unilaterally and would be surprised if such an approach resulted in any action, although if the bank is advised by the police that a VVN might be appropriate then that would be different.

That's not my experience.

My mother developed dementia when she was still very young, just middle-aged, as her mother had before her.  As typically happens, the disease changed her whole character.

After my father died, when she was 70, we found around £1000 in her handbag and that she had been drawing out huge sums every week from her bank account that seemed to have vanished.  I went into the bank and explained what was happening. It was clear to them that something was amiss, and they agreed to give her a small sum, £10 I think, and more than enough for a week's shopping back in 1979, each time she came in.  They might have seen me with her but didn't ask for any proof of who I was.  She apparently made a huge fuss every time, including accusing them of stealing her money, and I was very grateful they put up with her.

So bank staff could be very helpful and sensible back then, and I'm sure would still be today. They may even have training now in what to do if a customer is thought to be acting irrationally. Nobody wants to see elderly people robbed.

After she died, we found the missing money squirrelled away all over the house. Thousands of it; the biggest cache under her pillow. We also found that she had told the milkman what she'd been doing, so probably half the neighbourhood knew.

The world was a very different place 45 years ago!  Among the many significant changes are the introduction of data protection legislation and transformation of financial services controls - it can doubtless be debated as to whether these are positive or not, but such an old example is unlikely to be relevant to what's likely to happen today if someone contacts a bank expecting to influence how another person's account is to be managed.

Mr E, while that can't be denied, and I'm sure you are trying to be helpful, it would more useful if you could get your head in a place where you concentrate on what can be done, rather than on what can't be done. 

Sometimes it's better to try and to fail, than to never try at all.

Things have clearly moved on since I was last on here but for the record, I did make early suggestions about how best (IMHO) to deal with this, and was simply highlighting that an approach that may have worked way back in the same decade as decimalisation is unlikely to be relevant in this day and age, even though you no doubt felt that you were being helpful in citing it!

Glad to see that the matter has been resolved in the best way, i.e. by getting the victim to see sense.