‘They told me pay up or go to court’ I lost £1k to ‘HMRC iTunes’ scam
SCAMMERS have conned £1,000 out of a man from Bristol – by pretending to work for HM Revenue and Customs.
Melvyn Vernon was told to buy 100 iTunes vouchers from the Sainsbury’s store in Emersons Green or face being arrested.
The 58-year-old, from Lyde Green, was ordered not to tell anyone what he was doing and stay on the phone at all times by a scammer posing as a “UK tax official” on Wednesday morning last week.
Mr Vernon said he was “scared to death” at the prospect of going to prison and so agreed to the conman’s demands - before he contacted police and was told it was a scam.
“They said if I don’t pay them £1,000 straightaway, I would have the police at my door within 45 minutes and I would have to go to court,” he said.
“The scammer phoned me on my mobile and he knew my name. He said he was from the UK tax office and said I owed them £3,828.
“I had to go to Sainsbury’s and buy £1,000 worth of iTunes store vouchers. He asked me to do it, so I bought 100 £10 gift cards.
“It scared me to death. I had to stay on the phone the whole time and then when I got back to my flat, I had to spend ages giving him the codes for him to redeem.
“He has been calling me for the remaining amount of money ever since.”
Mr Vernon said the ordeal had left him so distressed that he could barely sleep - because he said he was shaking so much.
“I went for a walk at 3am and I thought to myself, ‘this doesn’t add
❝
up’,” he continued.
“Why was there no paperwork for the money I owed them? I spoke to Avon and Somerset Police and they said I should speak to the fraud team, which I did.
“They said it was a scam and that I should get on to Apple and warn them this has happened.
“I’ve lost £1,000 and I won’t be able to get that back. I feel like a complete idiot but, at my age, you panic – especially when you’ve never been in trouble with the law before.”
A spokesperson for Action Fraud said the incident was currently in the process of being logged.
“As this was reported very recently, it is currently in the process of being put on the Action Fraud system,” the spokesperson said. “Once it is formally on the system, the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau will start assessing it.”