How YOU could fall for scariest email scam yet
And worse, banks admit that a plan to help people like Richard, who lost £4,000, is still years away
THE email from Richard Barber’s trusted Polish builder looked no different from the others.
it was sent from his usual email address and included normal pleasantries. The only difference was that Wojtek was asking for cash for a loft conversion upfront, rather than at the end of the job.
‘Please i want you to deposit £4,000 to the account . . . so that i can start ordering for materials needed,’ the email read.
The email provided the details of a new Barclays account and was signed: ‘all best, Wojtek.’
Richard, 69, a former editor of OK! magazine, had known Wojtek for eight years and always been happy with his work. He saw no reason to be suspicious, so he called his bank the next day, transferred the money and thought nothing more of it.
But five days later Richard discovered his builder’s email account had been hacked.
He had not been exchanging emails with Wojtek at all. The money had gone to a fraudster’s bank account — and by the time Richard realised, just £4.33 was left.
Nine months later, he has not been reimbursed by his own bank, Coutts, or Barclays, the bank used by the crook.
Both say they merely did as they were asked. The police have not investigated because they have no leads and the ombudsman, which resolves disputes between customers and financial firms, says the banks are not liable.
Richard has exhausted all his options for compensation and must accept he is £3,995.67 out of pocket.
The retired journalist is one of thousands of victims falling for sophisticated bank transfer scams, with no way of clawing back their cash.
While fraud victims are generally refunded by banks if they are not at fault, those who unwittingly transfer money to a criminal’s account do not have the same protection because the banks say they have handed over cash voluntarily.
This kind of fraud could be stopped using technology that lets you doublecheck the name of the person you are paying online.
Banks have pledged in future to crosscheck the recipient’s account number with the name on the account.
a message will pop up on your screen saying something like: ‘Do you mean to pay John Smith?’
if this had been in place, Richard would have noticed the account did not belong to Wojtek, but to the unfamiliar name of a fraudster.
However, banks are dragging their heels on implementing this vital safeguard, saying only that it will be in place at some time in the next one to three years.
Critics say they have little incentive to act faster because they are not the ones who lose from transfer frauds.
Sadly for Richard, he did not suspect a thing as he transferred £4,000 from his account with Coutts, the Queen’s bank.
Wojtek Sliwka, 41, the builder, who lives in Ealing, West london, was doing a loft conversion on Richard’s holiday home in Whitstable, Kent, at a cost in excess of £8,000.
The pair had been exchanging emails about the work, so the bank transfer request didn’t come out of the blue.
after paying on a Sunday, Richard travelled to Whitstable the following Friday with his wife Patti to meet Wojtek and discuss their building plans.
The scam became apparent as he helped to unpack plasterboard from the van. Richard says: ‘i asked Wojtek whether he had received the money. He is normally very quick to confirm receipt of any payments, but he hadn’t done so.
‘Wojtek stopped in his tracks and said: “What are you talking about?” i told him i had transferred £4,000 to him and he was baffled.
‘We looked at each other and it was at this point that i think my face went ashen. i thought: “my God, how has this happened?” ’
Wojtek checked his email account and discovered another customer had also been asked for money. Fortunately, she had not made the transfer.
He called the police and sent an email to all his clients saying his account had been hacked. Coutts was sympathetic, but said Richard had to speak to Barclays to reclaim the funds.
He was given an email address to write to — reportascam@barclays.com. after several days, a reply came saying most of the money had gone and he would receive a cheque for the remaining £4.33.
‘ i feel there should be more protection for victims of these scams,’ says Richard. ‘The money was transferred in good faith. i don’t feel the fault was mine or that of my bank.
‘Barclays clearly does not have sufficient safeguards in place to prevent this type of fraud.’
Richard reported the scam to the metropolitan Police, who told him to call action Fraud, the national reporting centre for such crimes.
it decided that there were no leads and the crime was not investigated further.
action Fraud admits less than a third of cases sent to the national reporting centre are referred to the police.
a Coutts spokesman says: ‘ We sympathise with our client who was the victim of a scam and remind customers that seeing a phone number or email address you recognise does not mean it is genuine.’
a spokesman for Barclays says: ‘We have every sympathy with mr Barber and acted swiftly to recover the funds.
‘Unfortunately, they had been withdrawn within four hours of the payment being made.’
l.eccles@dailymail.co.uk