Fighting for your money

A fake police officer convinced me to buy £90,000 worth of gold and then he stole it all

QI read in your Apr 3 column about an elderly woman who was tricked out of £75,000 in a push payment scam and had some of the money returned. I have been scammed in a similar way and lost £90,000 of my life savings. I built up this pot over many years to help me get by as I get older. I am 75.

It all started at the end of February, when I was at home and feeling unwell after my first Covid vaccination. A man phoned saying he was Detective Chief Inspector Elliot from Holborn Police in London and said someone was using my bank details to buy a TV. He said a fraud squad officer would phone me. This officer rang and told me that staff at Halifax bank were giving out people’s details to fraudsters and a lady from Halifax head office in Canary Wharf would contact me. She did and said they were getting close to catching these people and not to tell anyone in case they became aware.

These individuals phoned me twice a day for a week, and groomed me into believing that I was helping the case.

The detective said that to keep my money safe – I had told him how much I had saved – I should buy gold. He told me to contact a company called Sharps Pixley to make the purchase.

DCI Elliot told me how much gold to buy online, which I did while he was still on the phone. The gold arrived a couple of days later, in a neat package. He arranged for a courier, who used an agreed password, to collect the gold and take it, so he said, to Halifax head office for safekeeping. The pair phoned me a couple more times and then I heard nothing. At that point I suspected it must have been a scam and contacted Halifax for help. It told me that because I had transferred the money myself it could not help me.

I also told the real police who took a statement and then I reported the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

No one seems to be able to help me, and I feel as if I am in a sort of void. Was it all a dream? I think the scammers hypnotised me. I have written to the fraud department at Halifax but have had no answer. Can you help? – Anon A It makes me feel wretched to read how these criminals blithely take advantage of older women like you who live alone. What would their own parents say if they knew how they made their living?

These crooks contacted you when you were feeling low after your vaccination and tapped into your natural insecurities about keeping your life savings secure.

It makes me even more indignant that they felt no compunction in coming to your home, where you should feel safe and secure, to steal savings right out of your own hands. I only hope the real police trace these individuals before they wreak more havoc with other people’s nest eggs. I felt pessimistic about how Halifax would respond since it had already rejected your claim. But it turned out it could be more sympathetic after some pressure. It realised there was more it could have done to intervene and so refunded £44,966, half the sum you lost.

Your case was technically outside the remit of a voluntary industry code for refunding scam victims in full. This is because you bought the gold yourself and received it from a legitimate seller.

Halifax would not refund the whole amount because it said you did not take steps to verify the caller before following their instructions to buy the gold. The bank said had you contacted it using the number on the back of your debit card, you might have discovered that the call was not genuine.

Personally, I am not convinced such a step would have been foolproof. Scammers have become very sophisticated and can spoof legitimate phone numbers. Indeed, you told me the Holborn Police number they originally called you from appeared to be genuine when you later checked it.

‘The payments made were certainly not in line with your usual bank account activity’

The bank also denied you the full refund because it said you authorised the payments despite receiving its warnings that read “fraudsters invent persuasive reasons to get you to make a payment” with a link to fraud information pages on its website.

However, the payments you made to the gold company were certainly not in line with your usual account activity. Halifax admitted it could have done more at this stage to step in. A spokesman said: “We could have done more to help identify the pattern of payments as being unusual. Taking this into consideration, we have arranged to refund half the amount used to purchase the gold.”

You tell me you are delighted. The police investigation is continuing and you hold on to hope you might get more of your savings back in due course.

I know some people, often shareholders, object to banks refunding fraud victims in this way.

But these companies are supposed to be safe havens for our money. If they do not refund victims in any circumstances then customers’ confidence in the system will be undermined.

This should always be considered on a case-by- case basis, of course, as a blanket approach would only create opportunities for crooks. It would also remove the personal responsibility we have for our own savings. But the banks are part of the system that is used and abused by the scammers to ply their trade. They need to play a greater role, along with the telecoms companies and the police, in making the financial system more resilient to their tricks.

Meanwhile, even though the refund represents only half your stolen savings, you told me you can now think about spending it on things you feared you would not ever be able to afford again.

You enjoy being at home painting watercolours, with your much-loved white cat at your side. However, after my intervention, you are now looking forward to going out more often with your friends and maybe even replacing your ageing car.

Please, dear readers, be sceptical of every email, text message and phone call that arrives out of the blue. Remember that no bank – nor the police – will ever ask you to move money in any form. Any suggestion such as this will most definitely be a scam.

I was charged £80 for a free PowerPoint trial then refused a refund

QIn early March I took out a free onemonth trial of the Microsoft 365 software package so I could try its PowerPoint computer program.

I had to give details of how I would pay if I went on to take out an annual £ 79.99 subscription after the month was up, and used PayPal to cover it.

I decided not to take up the subscription and cancelled well before the expiry date and Microsoft agreed that I did. However, on the one month anniversary of starting the free trial, £79.99 was taken from my PayPal account.

I spoke to Microsoft via web chat and was told I should contact PayPal, despite this payment showing as being authorised and approved by Microsoft.

PayPal turned down my claim. I had another web chat with Microsoft, which again directed me to PayPal. I declined to do this. And there the matter rests because I simply do not know what to do. I am 76 and would rather not see this money disappear. – SF, Hampshire A I feel your frustration as you did the right thing and ensured that you cancelled the arrangement well within the trial period.

Usually individuals who get caught out by free trials do so because they forget to take action to cancel them in good time.

You were told twice to contact PayPal about the erroneous payment but I felt that Microsoft, the recipient of your money, should do the sorting out on this occasion. I contacted the company and I am glad to say it saw sense and has refunded you the full £79.99.