Pensioner’s faith and savings restored
SCARED, humiliated and forced to sell the car she relied on to cover almost £2,000 of debt, an older lone woman was groomed by a scammer ruthlessly exploiting her religious beliefs and trust.
Martha Gordon, 72, is dependent on her state pension, and the fraudster targeted her through a Christian faith network, using a fake photograph still doing the rounds on Instagram.
“He masqueraded as part of my community in America. I put him to the test and he seemed to have great knowledge about how we do things and produced documents an outsider would never have. “We built a friendship,” she said. Knowing Martha’s limited circumstances, the con man struck, suggesting she could boost her savings by putting money into an online broker offering investments in cryptocurrencies, something she had no understanding of.
But she checked and was persuaded. “The company existed and it all seemed so plausible,” she remembers.
Deeply distressed, she confided in Crusader. Any cryptocurrencyrelated investment is extremely risky and not for someone in Martha’s position.
But this is not the point here. Seeing a company trading openly is no guarantee there’s not a scam somewhere along the line.
In this case it was a smokescreen for the crook who was keen that Martha use her PayPal account and her Tesco Bank card to transfer £1,886 in total into another PayPal personal account whose details the fraudster provided. He also lured her into sharing her passport and driving licence details.
While the sums were uncharacteristically large for her, they went through.When later she was bullied into trying to paying more, her card was blocked.
“Then he told me he was a fake. It was like a confession and he disappeared,” said Martha.
“I couldn’t sleep. I felt so ashamed about being so easily deceived. I sold my car to meet the debt. I didn’t want to carry on.”
She registered with fraud protection service Cifas. PayPal, she claims, was not helpful when she tried to explain. Tesco Bank did investigate.
“The inquiry was brief and I was told it was my fault. I also reported the matter to the police,” she adds.
Given Martha’s vulnerability, she could have asked for her case to be considered for a refund by the Financial Ombudsman, which helps the vulnerable filing a complaint.
However Tesco Bank was understanding when Crusader explained Martha’s plight.
Her payments and interest charges plus the £24 Cifas registration cost were refunded swiftly, and it gave her a goodwill gesture.
Tesco Bank said: “We were sorry to hear what [our customer] had gone through.”
PayPal, which has now offered to reinvestigate the matter, said it “continually works with its customers to explain ways they can protect their accounts and money”.
Martha thanked Crusader, saying: “I felt I didn’t count until you supported me.”