Woman conned out of £17,500 life savings in bank transfer scam as Which? claims reports are ‘tip of the iceberg’

BANK transfer scammers are conning people out of £5.5million and victims have no way of getting the cash back.

In just two weeks since Which? launched an online scams reporting tool more than 650 people have told the consumer group about how they've lost cash to transfer scams.

The largest single loss reported to Which? was £395,802, with most people losing £1,200 on average.

The consumer group has been gathering evidence for a "super complaint" it made in September to regulators about bank transfer fraud.

It wants to see banks take more responsibility when people are tricked into making bank transfers to fraudsters.

Annette, from north London, lost her life savings of £17,500 earlier this year after con artists convinced her they worked for NatWest and that she needed to transfer the balance of her account to a different one - which unbeknown to her was their own and had nothing to do with the high street bank.

The 55-year-old told The Sun Online she was called by fraudsters in June this year pretending to be from her bank, claiming that money had been taken out of her account.

She said: "They asked me how much was in my account and I said I wasn't going to tell them that as I suspected they were fake.

It's so worrying, I lie awake in bed every night worrying about how I'm going to manage.

Annette, victim

"They told me to call the number on the back of my card so I would know it was them but it took so long and I had to go through so many options that I eventually gave up.

The fraudsters called her back on a different phone and tried to convince her to log in to her online backing. They then promised to send her an activation code to prove their authenticity.

The next morning Annette tried the new online banking code she'd been sent and it worked - convincing her to believe the scammers really were legitimate.

But the fraudsters weren't finished with her and when they called up again they insisted money HAD been removed from her account.

They told her they needed to shut down her account and transfer the money to a different one and supplied her with their own account number and sort code.

Annette added: "I genuinely did believe at that point they were from the bank, how else could they have got the activation code?

"I knew it was a con when they said that they were sorry for the inconvenience and would be paying me compensation of £1,000 - which I know NatWest would never do.

"I ran straight up the hill to my local branch but they just put me on the phone to the fraud department.

"I didn't feel they were taking me seriously, they should have frozen the money there and then."

After complaining to the bank and contacting the Financial Ombudsman she was told that the cash was gone for good - and there was nothing anyone could do about it.