Hello, Hope you are well!
Read the article on FT.com (I was duped out of £4,300 in an online scam Sinclair's Article.) Though the article was written in 2018 the situation hasn't improved and I am currently going through similar experience in 2020.
I am supposedly experienced IT manager working for one of the big IT organization in London; I never imagined that I will fall victim of fraudsters tricks but I can admit that I have been conned. The fraudster has wiped all my savings in my savings account.
My story goes like this. On the 16th Dec 2020 it was a fine but cold afternoon in London. I received a call from HSBC Bank Customer service , a fraud call but genuine HSBC Customer Care number(03457404404). I did not know then that it was a fraudster impersonating as HSBC Fraud team telling me on telephone that the HSBC bank suspects there is suspicious activity with my HSBC account. Throughout the call I thought HSBC helping me to prevent the fraud but I was the one who was conned.
It appears like the fraudster had most of the information that he needed and by impersonating as fraud officer and by asking security questions he gained full access to my HSBC account. He moved my savings to my beneficiaries/payee accounts and he also taken out personal loans on my account. His intentions were clear. By impersonating HSBC fraud team and using tagline 'suspicious activity' he could ask me to contact beneficiaries/payees and ask them to move the money out to criminal controlled account. He could usurp the money in no time and drain his criminal controlled account overnight. Also, beneficiary/payee's are seeing this money coming from no where and its not their own money - they would not think twice clicking fast transfer button to criminal controlled account. And banks have no idea and the real fraud team thinks the payments are going into beneficiaries/payees - so not considered as suspicious.
One might say you should think twice before you take action. But when you have your bank telling you to do things you would not think twice. Because you trust them. The fraudster successfully used this trust mechanism to con me and con the bank.
Soon after the con call I reported it to my bank, HSBC. They are currently investigating the case and because there are several payments gone out to my beneficiaries- some beneficiaries do not trust me any more - HSBC asking me to contact the beneficiaries. Its ironic that the scammer was asking me to contact beneficiaries and my bank is also asking me to contact beneficiaries.
So these scams happen a lot and pandemic situation has made it worse. We should collectively voice against such scams so the authorities bring in law to make Authorised Push Payment mandatory for all financial institutions. We could try and form a group so victims can easily join the group by telling their stories. Hopefully this will give the required support and the victims may be able to get a platform to share their stories.
Let me know if you are interested in such a thing? We can try and come up with few ideas.
Kind regards
Vinay Gowda
Email: vinaykumarbrsoft@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
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