My life savings were stolen by scam gang that posed as bank
VICTIMS of a £50million scam shut down in Britain’s biggest ever fraud operation have described losing their life savings to criminals posing as bank workers.
Scotland Yard and partners around the world shut down iSpoof.cc and made 120 arrests after closing in on the ‘one-stop online fraud shop’ responsible for scamming 200,000 Brits.
The force began texting 70,000 victims asking them to contact officers last night and will continue to do so until 4pm today.
And some victims explained how they lost thousands to scammers who paid iSpoof up to £5,000 to use technology to make it appear to their targets that they were phoning from a high street bank.
Michele Bucci, an Italian living in the UK, lost his entire life savings of £5,000 from his Metro Bank accounts to a sophisticated scammer who knew specific personal details about him.
He said: ‘English is not my first language. They caught me off-guard and played straight into my fears and anxieties.
‘I ended up transferring all my money into a new Metro Bank account after they had me convinced that my bank account was under threat if I didn’t move it.
‘I realised quickly after putting the phone down and called Metro Bank straight away but it was too late.’ Mr Bucci added: ‘It was all I had, in the middle of a cost of living crisis. With Christmas around the corner I am not sure how I am going to survive.’
The mother of a vulnerable teenager said that her distraught daughter had also lost her life savings after falling for the same scam. She believes that her child was on a ‘suckers list’ after falling for a Royal Mail fraud which saw her personal details stolen. The woman, who asked not to be named, said: ‘From having spoken to others whose relatives have also been victims of scams, it’s common for their numbers to go straight onto a “suckers list” because it was so easy to hoodwink them and it’s easy money.
‘We think they got my daughter’s bank details and mobile number from a spoof Royal Mail email saying a package needed to be re-delivered as no one had been in and there was a nominal charge for this service – which she paid.’
She added: ‘She received a call with her caller display showing “Halifax Bank” as she’d stored the contact in her phone. The caller said her bank account had been compromised, checked her balance with her and said that she had to immediately move the money into a “safe account”.
‘She wasn’t sure, but panicked as they said it was urgent and criminals could access her money. She transferred £5,000, which was all her savings from a weekend job as well as some money for rent.’ The Met Police’s message does not contain links and will urge recipients to visit its website or contact Action Fraud, amid
fears that fraudsters could use the campaign to pounce on panicked members of the public.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned: ‘Don’t respond to any texts with dodgy shortcuts and things. Coming through official websites is the best way of doing this.
‘There is something sort of slightly bizarre about this, isn’t there, which is why we’re encouraging people to actually go on to the Met Police website and they’ll find the shortcuts and links there to report this.’
At its peak the iSpoof site was responsible for 20 fraudulent calls every minute.
Its 59,000 users are allgeged to have generated £3.2million for the site’s owners.
The suspected mastermind behind the site, Teejai Fletcher, 34, from east London, was charged with fraud and participating in organised crime on November 7.
The Londoner was remanded in custody and will appear at Southwark Crown Court on December 6.
‘I am not sure how I will survive’