I LOST £10,000
Jonathan Fairy lost almost £10,000 which he had inherited from his father – after being repeatedly threatened by an HMRC scammer.
In a horrific coincidence, the married father of three from tunbridge Wells was targeted at the exact time he was expecting a genuine call from the tax authority with details of money he needed to repay.
his wife Faye, a teacher at a further education college, said: ‘If it could happen to us, it could happen to anyone. We’re intelligent and we’re alert to potential scams, but this was so organised and sounded so official.’
the couple, both 44, also expressed anger at the British banks whose accounts were used to process the fraudulent payments. a week before being targeted, Mr Fairy had called HMRC to discuss money he needed to repay for child benefit, and was told he would receive a call or letter stating the final amount owed within a week.
the following week he received a call, claiming to be from HMRC – and appearing to be from a UK number – to discuss the money he owed.
‘these guys had more front than Blackpool tower,’ he said. ‘they gave me a reference number straight away and told me I owed £4,892.75, which was just under the amount I’d been expecting so it seemed completely authentic.
‘they said, “If you don’t pay today you’ll have to pay over £20,000 for court fees and charges.”’
he was at work at the time, so asked them to call back later when he was at home. It was then that he was put through to a supervisor who gave him the name Mark Victor. Mr Fairy said: ‘they told me the call was being recorded and all the usual things. they sounded completely natural and genuine.’
to be certain, during the call he Googled the number and checked it matched the number on the HMRC website. he now believes the scammers were using a false phone number to make it appear they were legitimately from the tax authority.
During the hour-long phone call, he was given details of a nearby tax centre where he was told he would be required to have a meeting the next day to finalise repayment details.
Mr Fairy said the scammers ‘even gave me three possible time slots and asked me to choose which one I wanted, and gave me the name of an accountant who I would be meeting’. he added: ‘It was a very thorough operation.’
they gave him details of a NATWEST account into which to make an immediate online payment, which he did.
he was told it would be held in the NATWEST account before the payment was finalised. But soon afterwards, while driving to rugby training, he received another call saying the payment had not been processed due to a problem on their end. the caller apologised and said he needed to pay again or court proceedings would begin automatically.
as it was after 5pm, his original payment would be repaid into his account first thing the following morning, the caller insisted.
Later that evening, Mr Fairy transferred another £4,892.75 – taking the total he had paid up to £9,785.50. But when he checked his account the next day, the repayment was not there. he then called the number he had assumed was HMRC – only to find it was no longer working.
‘I had a gut feeling something was wrong. I called my wife and asked her to check out the tax office where I was due to be having the meeting,’ said Mr Fairy. Mrs Fairy went to check, and said: ‘as soon as I got there I realised the tax centre had closed down. It was an awful feeling. I walked straight into the police station to report the crime.
‘I’m angry at the scammers, but also very frustrated that they are able to use the accounts of high street banks like NATWEST to carry out their fraud,’ she added.
to add insult to injury, Mr Fairy was still required to pay the money he owed to HMRC.
It took him nine calls to make that genuine payment – and he said he had previously been assured by HMRC that he was allowed to keep claiming the child benefit. Mrs Fairy said: ‘It’s frustrating. I feel if HMRC was more straightforward then it wouldn’t be possible for scammers to prey on people this way. their convo-
‘I had a gut feeling something was wrong’
‘I went straight to the police’
luted system makes it possible for criminals to exploit it and trick people.’
a spokesman for nationwide, who Mr Fairy banks with, said the payments were ‘not fraudulent’ as he had authorised them using his card reader.
NATWEST said it had attempted to recover Mr Fairy’s money, but said the account held with their company was used as a transfer to move the stolen cash into a separate banking and payments provider called Contis.
Justin Skinner, marketing director of Contis, would not say where the money had gone next, but said he regretted the situation and empathised with Mr and Mrs Fairy. he also said Contis ‘monitors accounts closely for any fraudulent activity’.
an HMRC spokesman said it has ‘invested heavily’ in protecting taxpayers, and advised those who have lost money to these type of scammers to contact action Fraud immediately.