Fraud Warning

[Plantaholic]

Some of you will already experienced this card fraud. I had a call this mowning from a man who claimed to be DCI Hart from card fraud dept., who informed me that my card and identity had been cloned and purchases had been made in London which is a long way from HW. I said I would contact my bank and check my A/C and he said they wouldn't appear on my A/C as they had been flagged up by them. He talked very fast and I listened, beginning to feel suspicious, he then said for me to punch in 161 on my keypad to verify his identity. I replied that I would rather talk to my bank, the line went dead. Have reported it to my bank and they said they will inform their fraud dept. Be careful, be very careful.

[Gemini]

Plant, thank goodness you were alert. Some of these scammers are very clever.
I have heard of several cases where they ask the person to phone their bank to verify that it is genuine, and they in some way intercept the call, so the person is unwittingly still speaking to the scammers.
The only safe way there is to call the bank on a different phone.

As Plant says, be careful everyone!

[Shemadee]

I think they stay on the line so that when you dial the number you are actually speaking to another scammer. Not a good feeling that you now have to start from a point of mistrusting everyone.

[ZIZI]

some years ago when we had the shop I also had a call from a policeman, husband took the call and said I was busy. He insisted on speaking to me. Like you Plant he spoke very fast and urgently. He told me I had to give him my pin number for them to verify the card they said they had found on a suspect. At the time we were very, very broke and did not use the account that the card belonged to - well there was nothing in there! I couldn't remember the number and eventually he went off the line. We later found out that whilst I was on my own in the shop being distracted someone had got to the back of the shop, stolen my purse and £500 cash which was float money for our charity carnival and was well hidden. A woman in a charity shop further down the road did give over her pin number and her account got wiped out.

I have recently had a lot of email attempted scams. A couple of them I have seen straight through but a couple from Barclays look so real that I have telephoned the bank to verify they haven't been real and of course they were not. Important thing to remember about emails is NEVER to click on a link. Sometimes it is downright stupid. I do not have a account with HSBC so why would they be sending me an email asking for my details?

[Oma]

My sister had this scan and after he stopped talking she said, oh hang on I will just phone my son on my mobile he happens to be my bank manager , they quickly hung up . She hasn't got a son only 4 daughters but I think she was quick on her toes to think that up 😊

[Mimi]

The thing is I now suspect everyone who calls . Today I had a random call ( or so I thought at the time ) from a letting agency informing me that I had shown interest in some property . I said you've got the wrong number and put the phone down, only for me , a few seconds later returning the call, apologizing like mad to the woman on the oter end of the line. The call was for DS and he had given her my number because his mobile phone is broken and awaiting to go to repair. I had forgotten all about this arrangement with DS. ! What a numpty I can be at times

[Nanto2girls]

So pleased you were alert Plant.
Unfortunately, there are still people being taken in by these scams and the email scams.
ZIZI, what an awful thing to happen to you and the other lady.

[Plantaholic]

That is awful Zizi, I think people are getting wise to these scams, I was waiting for him to ask for my account number. He knew my name, address and asked if anyone else lived at this address, don't know what that was about. He spoke very fast, sucking one in to believing him, but I thought it was odd that my bank hadn't informed me, his answer to that was that these purchases had been flagged up by his dept. so would not be on my debit account. He also asked who I banked with and I then thought surely he would know that if my card had been cloned. I felt quite pleased with myself but a bit shaky after. Pleased warn all your family and friends

[Daisy]

Plant - well done for spotting what sounds like a very convincing scam.


We all certainly need to keep our wits about us these days!