Terminally-ill woman victim of £53k fraudsters
AGRANDFATHER has been left devastated after “professional fraudsters” conned him out of £53,000.
Retired BT Engineer John Williams had the money set aside to buy an apartment in WestonSuper-Mare for him and his terminally ill wife Carol.
“My wife has had lung cancer for three years after never smoking a cigarette in her life,” he said.
“We had sold our house in Tenerife to buy one in Weston-SuperMare. We wanted to spend the summer with our grandchildren and couldn’t get insurance to go to Tenerife.
“We are going to have to take a mortgage out now. A mortgage at nearly 65 is not what you want.”
The scammers had called Mr Williams on May 10 and used technology to make the number appear as Santander on the phone.
“It is a scam called spoofing,” said Mr Williams who is from Newbridge. “I wasn’t aware of it. “These people are professionals. “They are very articulate and well spoken.
“They were able to make my phone come up with Santander’s number. When I worked for BT they didn’t have the technology to do that.
“They told me that £15,000 was being taken out of my account by a Stephen King in Dundee. They said they needed remote access.”
Mr Williams went online and had given them remote access to the account – it was then he became suspicious.
“I said to him that nothing had been taken out of the account and he told me they had been pre authorised to go out the next morning.
“He said they would have to make a J Williams safe account.
“I thought this wasn’t right so I rang Santander on my mobile.”
The con artist tried to convince Mr Williams not to call saying “customer service won’t be able to help” and it was his specialist department.
When Mr Williams called Santander they confirmed the call wasn’t from them and said they would call him back.
However the clever fraudsters rang him back immediately, this time it was a woman, claiming to be responding to his call.
Once the money was moved they told Mr Williams they would be sending him new passwords and details.
Once he realised he had been conned Mr Williams called the police and bank. However the audacious criminals then rang he again and tried to get more cash.
“I shouted ‘you b ***** you have scammed me!’.” said Mr Williams.
“He replied ‘no Mr Williams you have got it all wrong’.”
Mr Williams has since found out he will not be able to get any of the cash back that was stolen because he gave out the passwords.
“I am devastated,” he said. “They say they have to treat people equally and if they refunded me they would have to refund everyone.
“It would be nice to have a goodwill gesture like a mortgage for the apartment on a good interest rate.
“They knew I had tried to call saying someone was taking money out.”
A spokeswoman for the bank said: “We are sympathetic to Mr and Mrs Williams’ situation and to all who suffer distress at the hands of criminals who carry out scams.
“We welcome the involvement o f the media to help raise awareness of scams.
“We hope it will reinforce our own campaigns to protect and educate customers and remind them to follow our specific guidance about avoiding scams when using online banking.
“Alongside this we continue to work closely with the authorities, other partners and the industry to combat fraud, as well as helping the police to ensure the criminals who cause such misery are brought to justice.”
Gwent Police have appealed for information.
A spokeswoman for the force said: “At approximately 8.50am on Friday, May 11 we received reports of a potential fraud in the Newbridge area.
“It was reported that on May 10 at approximately 6.00pm the victim received a call from a man purporting to be from Santander bank.
“Following several security questions the caller went to say the victim has had an unauthorised transaction of £15,000 from his account online.
“He stated this could be due to the fact the victim has a virus on his home computer, to which he then offered to fix.
“The caller then gained remote access to his computer to remove the virus. Since this, two withdrawals of up to £53,000 have been taken from the victim’s account.
“Officers are liaising with the victim to offer support and reassurance.
“Anyone with information or concerns about fraud are asked to call 101 or report any suspicions to Action Fraud via their website www.actionfraud.police.uk or call them on 0300 123 2040.”