THE VICTIMS
Conmen stole almost £60,000 but I felt guilty
A fraud victim has spoken of the psychological impact after losing almost £60,000 to scammers. Michael Rossall, a retired teacher from Glasgow, said he was tortured by guilt after transferring the cash from his bank account to crooks over three days
last year after he had reported a broadband router fault to his internet provider. Michael, 74, was convinced he was dealing with technical staff from Virgin Media when they contacted him. The scammers told him to download security software, which turned
Joan Gavigan feels she had a lucky escape after her Amazon account was hacked and she was charged for items that she never ordered.
Joan, from Clydebank, became suspicious when dog-related products arrived
at her home in June last year.
“I don’t have a dog and when I checked my bank I discovered I had been charged almost £50 for things I hadn’t ordered from Amazon,” she said. Joan, 73, had been targeted by an increasingly common out to be spyware. The criminals stole his bank details and passwords and raided his accounts. Michael described the ordeal as a “nightmare”. “It was all I could think about from morning to night for three months,” he said. “I felt like a zombie.
“The money had been inherited and I felt like it was the family’s money, not mine, and that I had let everyone down. I’ve never considered myself to be gullible but these crooks were so convincing I fell for it.
“It has been an ongoing nightmare dealing with three different banks, the police and the ombudsman. The banks have only given me a portion of the money back as they said I approved most of the payments myself.” Michael now wants banks to do more to protect customers by introducing increased safeguards.
I started getting things I had never ordered
– Joan Gavigan
fraud in which scammers use people’s email details to hack into online shopping accounts. Typically, at first, they send low-cost items to people and if the victims don’t notice they hadn’t ordered these themselves, the crooks then set up alternative delivery addresses and start using a victim’s bank details to order and pay for much more expensive items. Amazon secured Joan’s account before any further damage was done. “The experienced has certainly changed me and I am now a lot more suspicious of everything,” Joan said. “I don’t answer the phone if I don’t recognise the number and I don’t respond to unsolicited emails or texts, even though they might be genuine.
“I was never like that before but sadly
I am now.”