Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fraud gangs pose as court officials
Violin repairer was strung along by cunning crooks
A huge hole in banking security and a perfectly pitched scam phone call have combined to defraud a small businessman.
The caller claimed to be a court enforcement officer and warned Daniel Bartlette that a case was about to be heard concerning a debt that he owed of almost £3,000.
He was told that bailiffs would be sent to his home unless he paid that afternoon.
The call was made at 4pm, with Daniel being told that he had until 5pm to act. He just had time to carry out some basic checks.
The caller used the name Stephen King. Daniel searched an online register and found that he was indeed registered as a court enforcement officer.
The alleged debt concerned an online business directory that Daniel had apparently agreed to appear in, inadvertently signing himself up to a subscription which he hadn’t been paying, which sounded all too plausible.
What’s more, the caller did his best to sound helpful in the 45-minute conversation, telling Daniel “he’d seen lots of cases like this and he was phoning to check if we knew about it as there was no correspondence from us in the evidence”.
Finally, Daniel was reassured by being told to transfer the money into an account in the name of Worcester Court.
“The caller said that an account wouldn’t have been able to be set up in the name of a court if it wasn’t genuine,” said Daniel. “He told us if we paid the amount outstanding then the court would hold the funds before deciding if they’d be sent on to debt collectors or returned to us.
“It was a great rush and time was running out to stop the debt collectors. I asked to pay by credit card but he said that because it was to do with a debt payment that wouldn’t be acceptable.”
So Daniel, who runs a musical instrument repair shop near Norwich, sent the money using the bank faster payment service.
Then the caller rang back to say the money had gone into an incorrect account and would be refunded, but meanwhile Daniel had to pay it again – which he did.
But Stephen King turned out to be a crook masquerading as a genuine court enforcement officer and the bank account had nothing to do with the courts.
“I’ve called Worcester court and they’ve heard a lot about him,” Daniel says.
The account that received the payment is at the Halifax, and part of the problem is that the Worcester Court name that Daniel was given is meaningless.
That’s because no check on the validity of an account name is made when a customer sends money using the faster payment method.
“Across the industry, faster payments are currently sent on the basis of the account number and sort code only,” said a spokesman for the bank.
“This has been recognised as an industry issue and the Payment Strategy Forum is looking to help prevent this type of fraud with a new ‘confirmation of payee’ solution, which means that in future a payee will be able to check the name of an account before sending a payment.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said it was acting to tackle this “abhorrent crime”, adding: “The law is clear – it is a criminal offence for anyone to act as an enforcement agent without the correct authorisation.”