Fake engineer stole £7,700

The day after we reported internet problems to our broadband provider it called me to say an engineer would ring in the next few hours to sort them out. An appointment was arranged but then, perhaps coincidentally, I had a call within the hour from someone else. I presumed it was the engineer.

After being on the phone for three hours to the person trying purportedly to resolve the broadband issue he said he wanted to compensate me with £255. Our bank, HSBC, rang me to report an unusual transaction, but I missed the call. The bank then took it upon itself to let a payment of £1,989 go out of the account and thereafter there were another 12 transactions within two hours. All of these together totalled £7,715.

This should never have been allowed as very few transactions are made on the account.

HSBC has refused to compensate us. Can you resolve this matter? JW, SOUTH WEST ENGLAND

This was your husband’s business account, which you have authority to access. It happened during a festive period that was a very busy time for your small business. You are still shocked and hazy about some of the details.

Perhaps the caller knew there was a current broadband outage and rang you suspecting that you were in touch with your broadband provider. Or it may have been a broader “phishing” exercise. Either way you presumed it was the engineer calling and gave enough away for him to take advantage.

It seems that once you had accessed your computer you were encouraged to download software that gave access to all the internet services. He seemed very pleasant and chatty but after you had done this the impostor was creepily watching your every internet move. While