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Our son was in college when a letter to him from Nationwide arrived at our home. It turned out that he had taken out a loan of £ 10,000 and was two months past due.
After a tearful conversation, she explained that she had cheated on, threatened, and had suicidal thoughts on Snapchat.
The loan was paid into his checking account in Santander, from which he then transferred money to the scammer’s account. What can we do?
Sam Richardson, To die?The Deputy Editor of Money says: I’m very sorry to hear that. It’s a reminder of the devastating impact that betrayal can have on both the victim and her family.
It’s also a stark reminder that, due to the increasingly sophisticated and evolving tactics of scammers, each of us can be at risk. Scams can start in unlikely places: Your child was first approached via the Snapchat social media app by a scammer claiming that your child could make money through a bitcoin exchange system.
At this point you would expect the scammer to ask for money, but what they were interested in was the details, especially the personal details they would need to apply for the £ 10,000 loan on behalf of their son.
You used threats of violence to get your child to transfer the money to the scammer’s account and pressured him not to speak to Santander despite the bank’s attempts to contact him about the unusual transfer.
Fortunately, after learning what happened and contacting Santander, they returned the £ 10,000 and Nationwide agreed to write off the interest on your child’s loan and remove it from your credit file. However, the question remains as to why Nationwide was willing to lend the money.
The scammer alleged that your son is a Lloyds Bank employee and earns £ 1,400 a month without expenses. Neither a check of your child’s credit report, nor his personal details, would necessarily reveal this to be false, but you hope that a 19 year old looking to borrow £ 10,000 – not to mention the strange lack of spending – would incur costs. additional would cause checks.
Her son isn’t the only victim: Cifas, the financial sector’s anti-fraud association, reported that identity fraud has increased by a fifth in the past year. If you are having trouble getting your money back because your bank refused your request, you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS acts as an independent mediator between the complainant and the bank and is used to resolve disputes.
There are several steps we can take to avoid becoming a victim. Don’t give personal information to anyone unless you can verify their identity – banks will never ask customers for a security PIN or password over the phone.
Hang up the phone, take five minutes to think about what you’ve been told, and call the organization back to a trusted number (e.g. the number on the back of your debit card).
Check what personal information you share on social media and with whom, and be wary of friend or connection requests from people you don’t know.
If you dispose of paper documents, consider destroying those containing personal information. If you are moving – and since your child is a student, this could be a fairly common occurrence in the next few years – ask Royal Mail to redirect your mail for at least a year.
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