5 Ways They Get You
Shari Vahl, Radio 4 ‘You and Yours’ reporter, looks at the 5 ways scammers try and get your money.
ONE - LOVE
Kirsty, 42, fell victim to a romance fraudster.
She is a single mum with four children, recently divorced. She was encouraged to try online dating by friends.
She wants to warn other people about this tactic. “This has nearly killed me. I’ve put my family through so much. Everything I’ve earned, everything I’ve built. They've taken it.”
The man she was in a ‘relationship’ with, told her he was about to go on a trip to Turkey on business. After three days of silence, he told her that he had been in an accident.
“He sent me a picture of him in the hospital, in a hospital gown, his car had been hijacked. He was pulled out of the car and beaten up,” she said.
He told Kirsty he needed help paying his hospital bills, but unusually, in this kind of fraud, he did not ask for her money. Instead, he gave her what he said were his online bank details so she could set up a payment for him. In his account, she could see his balance of $600,000. On his request, she repeated the same process multiple times.
But when the man asked her to go back into the account to check one of the payments, the website told her she was “locked out” of the account.
“He went mad, and he blamed me. He just went crazy,” she said.
He asked if Kirsty could send her own money to settle the £5,000 bill he needed to pay, reassuring her she would be repaid out of the $600,000 she had seen in his account, when it was unfrozen.
“I was crying, I just wanted to scream.”
The manipulation and requests for her to pay her own money continued, until the total reached £80,000. The bank allowed the payments.
The pictures of the man Kirsty had fallen in love with online, had been stolen by criminals to create a fake dating profile.
Dr Elisabeth Carter is a criminologist and a forensic linguist. She said, “it is about talking to somebody you know”.
“These fraudsters will try and spin it, saying: “This is a private relationship between us. Don't tell anyone else.”
“This is classic isolation when you're in this grooming process.”
She highlights that “any legitimate person will not mind if you're talking to somebody else to protect yourself”.
Shari Vahl from Radio 4 said: “There is no such thing as secret love.”
TWO - FRIENDS
Nicole Reeves lost £1,200 when her Instagram account was hijacked.
She had come across a video posted by her friend and former colleague. In the video he explained how he had invested £500 and received £5,000 back. She was told that she could benefit from fluctuations in currency.
She messaged, who she thought was her friend via Instagram, and he confirmed that it was true.
She was then instructed to contact a specific profile on Instagram. Having transferred the funds, she was told she had been chosen for a special bonus and would be receiving £20,000, but only if she could find a further £2,000 for 'taxes'.
She then received a phone call from someone who claimed to be a manager. He asked her to record a video of herself, to tell everyone how great the investment is.
She was told that she would receive the money once she had recorded the video.
Finally, she was persuaded to hand over her Apple ID, password, and then the one-time passcode that appeared on her phone. She was told this was to prove her identity to receive a large amount of money.
“Everything started going absolutely crazy," she said.
"Things were happening to my Instagram account and I was locked out of my device. I was completely brainwashed.”
The fraudsters took control of her Instagram account and used it to post messages promoting the fake investment to others using the video she’d made.
She then discovered that her friend had also fallen victim to the scam, and it was not him that she had spoken to on Instagram.
Meta, the owners of Instagram, said that “this breaches their policy” and that they take “action against millions of fake accounts every year”.
Dr Elisabeth Carter is not surprised how affective this fraud is.
She recommends to text, phone, or visit your friends. “Some people might think: “I'm going to look really paranoid.”
“It's fine. It's better to look paranoid than be defrauded,” she added.
THREE – PROPERTY
Reverend Mike Hall was shocked when he returned to his house in Luton and found it stripped of all furnishings in August 2021.
He bought the property in 1990. He was working in north Wales when he received a call from his neighbours alerting him that someone was in his house and all the lights were on.
He drove home to find building work under way and that it had a new owner who said he had bought the house.
"I tried my key in the front door, it didn't work,” he said.
What he didn’t know is that criminals had stolen his identity, got driving licences, utility bills and a bank account all in his name, gone to a firm of solicitors, and said: “I’m Mike Hall, I’d like to sell my house and the solicitor did.”
This was the work of an organised criminal gang who stole several other houses in the same way.
The Land Register is the only record of who owns what property in England and Wales. Mike’s name wasn’t on the title, so the house wasn’t his anymore.
Houses which don’t have a mortgage and where you don’t live are very vulnerable to this.
Alex Wood spent eight years in prison for fraud. Now, he advises police and institutions on how to stop people like him.
He said, “His Majesty's Land Registry has a Property Alert Service you can sign up to for free to protect yourself from this”.
“If any searches are done on that property, you’ll will be alerted”, he added.
Dr Elisabeth Carter said: “[Houses without mortgage] are incredibly attractive to these fraudsters because there's no need to transfer the mortgage.”
“The lender knows where you are, the lender knows legitimate person's address and how to get hold of them and the fraudsters don't want this.
“Once criminals have assumed the identity in order to change the address, they can then apply for bank accounts, because bank accounts are one of the ways we identify ourselves.
“The main thing that we can do is to stop that first change happening by having that property alert set.”
FOUR - BANK CARD
Charlotte, from west London, went to the gym after work when all of her belongings, including her bank cards and phone were stolen from her locker.
“I felt quite distressed. I had my keys to my flat, my phone, my bank card and all my clothes. I froze, I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t go to my flat”, she said.
Charlotte then found out her card had been used to make about £8,000 worth of purchases from her current account.
Having initially believed her savings account would be safe, she was then told the thieves had also transferred her £10,000 of life savings into her current account.
"I thought that's everything. I've lost everything," she said.
She was told by her bank that “she will not be getting her money back, that it’s her fault because they’ve used her PIN”.
The bank has apologised to her and refunded her money and gave her compensation.
Radio 4's Shari Vahl explained how this fraud works.
“Many banks allow you to get your PIN from your banking app. If someone steals your bank card and your phone, they can load your card onto the banking app on their phone.
“Your bank sends a one-time pass code to your phone which is in their hand.
“They put that code into their phone, open the app on their phone to let them see your PIN.”
Shari gives tips on how to prevent this scam, saying: “If your phone allows it, get into your settings and turn off the ability to see messages when they ping up on your phone without unlocking it first.”
“Do not keep your bank card next to your phone, the theft of the two together gives criminals a way in.”
FIVE - HELLO MUM
The “Hello Mum” fraud is one of the most successful techniques criminals have used in recent times. In the first six months of 2024, 13,000 people have lost £50m between them just through this fraud.
Julie, who is a nurse, got a message through on WhatsApp that said: “Hi mum, changing my provider. This is my new number. I've dropped my phone down the sink, and I need a new laptop as well. Would you be able to pay a few bills for me?”
Julie straight away thought it was her son Gareth.
The two initial payments were both just under a £1,000. But the messages, supposedly from her son, continued. Julie even went to the bank and moved money to the new account. She began to feel uneasy.
“He just asked me how much I had in the bank, and I thought Gareth would never ask me that.”
She went to ring the number and the message she got back said: “I can’t ring you at the moment mum, because I'm still in the bank sorting details out but I'll ring you later.”
Julie then thought: “I'll just ring his old number, and I rang it.”
Her son answered and told her he hadn’t contacted her today.
“I just started crying. I thought it was him. I'd do anything to help my children if I can. I just feel like a fool,” she said.
This “Hello Mum” fraud eventually cost Julie £11,000.
Dr Elisabeth Carter said the key thing is to phone that person, the son or daughter on the phone number you know, first.
“Knowledge is key in this,” she said.
“The reason why they use “Hello Mum, Hello Dad” is they're harnessing two things here. One of which is that familiar relationship where you want to go and protect that person, but also it means they don't have to know your name, so they hide underneath this.
“Nothing in the world is that urgent that you need to send money straight away.
“Try and get hold of that child yourself and say: “What is the phrase? Or which one of my children are you?”
Listen to the full five episodes of Five Ways They Get You on 大象传媒 Sounds by clicking here.
Hear more of Shari Vahl’s investigations in to scams and other consumer stories on 大象传媒 Radio 4’s You and Yours programme.