Web fraudsters steal £16k savings after TSB crash

A GYM owner saw £16,000 vanish from his TSB account in a matter of hours as part of a sophisticated scam.

John Machin fell victim to a ‘sim swap’ in which fraudsters take over a victim’s phone number to gain access to an account.

He is one of a number of TSB customers to have been targeted in the aftermath of the bank’s online systems upgrade fiasco that affected up to 1.9million customers.

Mr Machin, 31, saved up the cash to buy his ex-wife out of the former marital home but saw it disappear in three quickfire transactions.

He said: ‘Whoever did this was incredibly organised to get a sim card with a phone number for me. They must have already had my bank details and then launched the fraud as soon as my sim arrived.’

The fraud involves the crooks convincing a victim’s mobile provider to send them a new sim so they can take over the victim’s phone. It means they receive text messages sent by TSB containing passcodes needed to authorise changes to a bank account.

Mr Machin, from Congleton, Cheshire, suspects his bank account was hacked first. He only realised he had fallen victim to a financial crime when he discovered his phone was not working and, after spending 20 minutes on hold to his network’s customer services department, was told the disconnection was because ‘ he’ had ordered a new sim card.

He checked his online bank account and discovered the password had been changed.

It took him one hour and 40 minutes to get through to TSB, by which time the £16,000 had been taken.

TSB apologised for the ‘distress and inconvenience’ Mr Machin suffered and repaid the cash but his account remains locked.