A new scam to me

[jefmcg]

I went with what you said, not what you're saying.

37% of landlines are with BT. You claimed that 80% of numbers are BT allocated numbers. I disagreed.

Edit: I was a little rude about it, when I disagreed. I apologise for that.

 

[jefmcg]

I have a non tech fraud story, which just goes to show you don't need to go phishing via email/internet.

My Grandparents were conned by these guys - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/syria-bank-terror-fraud-gang-7861488

My Grandfather who is 94 was called by the Police and told to go and get money out of the bank and hand it over to a policeman who would come to the door that evening. My grandfather goes to the bank weekly to withdraw £50 in cash from inside the branch, he has been doing it for 20 years or more. One day he walked in and asked for 20K (a large part of his savings), they just handed it over without any questions.

He got suspicious about 2 hours after he handed the money over because the plain clothed policeman did not show his warrant card because he was 'undercover'. The local police escalated it to the Met anti-terrorism department who took it all very seriously.

After a bit of pressure the bank actually refunded my Grandfather as an act of goodwill - which I was surprised about. The incident certainly affected his confidence, which at his age was already very low. I don't think he has left the house on his own since.

That's a terrible story. I'm glad he got his money back, and sorry he's so afraid.

Which bank was it? They deserve the goodwill for the refund.

 

[Profpointy]

http://uk.pcmag.com/opinion/13820/black-hat-intercepting-calls-and-cloning-phones-with-femtoce

It might be possible in theory, but in practice no-ones really going to intercept millions of text messages just on the off-chance you manage to stumble across a house purchase set of messages the do a man-in-the-middle attack on their purchase funds transfer. Any such scam is almost certainly an inside job by someone vaguely involved in the transaction itself.

 

[Milkfloat]

That's a terrible story. I'm glad he got his money back, and sorry he's so afraid.

Which bank was it? They deserve the goodwill for the refund.

NatWest. I am not sure if it was because of the publicity or because their internal processes should at least have questioned him, but legally i don't think they 'had' to refund him, so good on them.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I had something similar involving the iTunes Store yesterday. Probably some Nigerians in a coffee shop somewhere. Just delete and ignore.

 

[wheresthetorch]

It seems no-one is immune:

Google and Facebook duped in huge 'scam' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39744007

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

NatWest. I am not sure if it was because of the publicity or because their internal processes should at least have questioned him, but legally i don't think they 'had' to refund him, so good on them.

To hand over £20k like that is appalling. I work for a bank, we regularly get videos telling us that's exactly the sort of thing not to do. Glad they refunded him but I also hope they took disciplinary action against the staff involved.

 

[Freds Dad]

To hand over £20k like that is appalling. I work for a bank, we regularly get videos telling us that's exactly the sort of thing not to do. Glad they refunded him but I also hope they took disciplinary action against the staff involved.

Can you just walk in a bank and get a large amount of cash? I bought a car a few years ago and gad to give the branch 48 hours notice for the money.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Can you just walk in a bank and get a large amount of cash? I bought a car a few years ago and gad to give the branch 48 hours notice for the money.

You evidently could in this case.....

 

[mjr]

Can you just walk in a bank and get a large amount of cash? I bought a car a few years ago and gad to give the branch 48 hours notice for the money.

Alternative view: Should you have to beg for your own money?

 

[jefmcg]

You evidently could in this case.....

The scammers developed a script that somehow convinced people to withdraw tens of thousands from their accounts, hand them to strangers and lie to their families about it. Walking them through any hurdles to withdraw the money would be a piece of cake compared to that.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

The scammers developed a script that somehow convinced people to withdraw tens of thousands from their accounts, hand them to strangers and lie to their families about it. Walking them through any hurdles to withdraw the money would be a piece of cake compared to that.

The bank teller should have asked what he needed the cash for. In fact for that amount of money they should have immediately summoned the branch manager to ask him directly. And having heard the cock and bull answer about paying an undercover cop they would have been able to talk him out of it. Or at least play for time to allow for further investigation.

 

[jefmcg]

The bank teller should have asked what he needed the cash for. In fact for that amount of money they should have immediately summoned the branch manager to ask him directly. And having heard the cock and bull answer about paying an undercover cop they would have been able to talk him out of it. Or at least play for time to allow for further investigation.

The victims believed they were helping a fraud investigation, so they most certainly would not have mentioned the undercover cop, as that would have ruined the "investigation". If the criminals managed to convince the victims to lie to their families, I don't think they have had much problem convincing them to lie to their bank. And presumably provide them with a suitable lie, that they know the tellers/manager would accept.

 

[Tin Pot]

Alternative view: Should you have to beg for your own money?

No one is suggesting begging.

Banks follow KYC and many other policies and protocols to protect themselves and their customers, and also to counter crime both at home and abroad.

A 94yo man turning up out of the blue asking for a suitcase full of cash should raise the eyebrows of even the most junior teller, and a protocol followed that would easily have exposed the police imposter.

 

[Pale Rider]

No one is suggesting begging.

Banks follow KYC and many other policies and protocols to protect themselves and their customers, and also to counter crime both at home and abroad.

A 94yo man turning up out of the blue asking for a suitcase full of cash should raise the eyebrows of even the most junior teller, and a protocol followed that would easily have exposed the police imposter.

I'm surprised the branch had £20,000 in cash to give him.

To the bank, cash is 'dead stock' so they keep as little as they can get away with.

My brother was a branch manager for a while, and as he said there wasn't much point in robbing the place because there was rarely a great deal of cash in there.

Lots of money in the cassettes in the cash machines, but that's not reachable by the staff.