Police officer lost £15,000 saved up for stamp duty

SIMON and Elizabeth Ghali (pictured) lost £15,200 to scammers just last week.

The Ghalis, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, are due to move house in two weeks and had earmarked part of the money to pay their stamp duty bill.

But on January 7, Elizabeth, a police officer, received a call out of the blue from someone claiming to work for NatWest’s fraud team.

As the phone number that appeared on her mobile matched the one on her bank card, she assumed the call was legitimate. The caller, ‘Craig’, said there had been suspicious activity on their account and asked if she had made a £186 payment to Currys.

He took her through a series of security questions, confirming her date of birth and direct debits.

He then said she needed to move her money to a safe account and requested she use her card reader to generate a code to approve the transfer.

The caller even played the same music as NatWest when he put her on hold.

But after Elizabeth, 36, hung up, she and Simon became suspicious and called NatWest. It then emerged their £15,000 savings for the move and their children were gone. Despite logging the fraud, the bank still allowed the fraudster to take out £15,000 more in the form of a loan in Elizabeth’s name the next day.

Simon says: ‘I almost had a heart attack. We are intelligent people. My wife’s a police officer, but he was so convincing she truly believed he was trying to help her. We have four children aged between two and 13 and we are supposed to move house in two weeks. This money is everything.’

So far, NatWest has wiped the debt but refused to refund the couple their savings, claiming that they authorised the transaction. Simon and Elizabeth are referring their case to the Ombudsman.

A spokesman for NatWest says: ‘Keeping our customers safe and secure is of paramount importance to us. We sympathise with Mr and Mrs Ghali who have fallen victim to a scam and appreciate this has been a traumatic experience for them. We take our responsibilities to preventing scams very seriously, and support the victim of a scam in the recovery of their funds on a best endeavours basis.’