‘Smishing’ victim Claire Pearson who lost £65,000 life savings pleads ‘why can’t I get my cash back?’ and claims money was transferred from Santander to other UK banks
A MUM-TO-BE who was conned out of her life savings by a "smishing" scam is demanding to know why the fraudsters can't be traced, claiming she was told by her bank the cash had been transferred to other UK accounts.
Claire Pearson's £65,000 savings were stolen by "sophisticated" thieves posing as Santander fraud prevention experts to warn her about a large payment from her account.
The 38-year-old told the Sun how the cash - inheritance from her father - was drained from her account before her eyes after she was duped into giving a single passcode to scammers over the phone.
The text message-based fraud is known as "smishing" - short for SMS phishing - and experts have warned of an epidemic of the scams in the UK.
But rather than offshore accounts, Claire says Santander told her the money had been transferred to customers at three other major UK banks.
She told the Sun Online: "It's traceable. You can see the money skipping from account to account. You need to be quick.
"Why can't they be traced? Especially if it was UK banks.
"How did that person open an account?
"You have to provide proof of address and ID. You have to be credit checked."
Santander says it contacted the banks straight away, but was only able to recover £2,250 from the accounts to which the cash was transferred.
Claire also said she felt "fobbed off" by Santander after their investigation into the devastating theft was closed within 24 hours.
She was duped into giving a One Time Passcode (OTP) to the fraudster, who was able to amend the sort code and account number of someone she had previously paid, meaning there were minimal security checks.
She contacted the bank minutes after realising what had happened, but was sent a letter dated the day after to say her claim had been fully investigated but she would not be reimbursed as she had "authorised" the payment.
She told the Sun Online: "They must have decided on the day.
"They've obviously copy and pasted sections [in the letter] to make them appropriate for each customer.
"Some of the wording on the letter isn't quite right. It says I authorised the payment. I didn't. I authorised an amendment to a payee.
"There was no mention of a figure of how much was being debited.
"It's a totally different sort code - you're setting up a completely new payee. No other banks do this."
Claire, whose is weeks away from giving birth to her first child, said she felt "humiliated" after falling for the scam - but believes her bank should have done more to protect her and others.
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She said: "It's embarrassing to admit that you did this - I was stupid. You feel so stupid.
"I don't think people want to come forward and say that.
"I do accept responsibility. I can't deny I was partially to blame in that respect.
"However I don't think I've been protected by my banks and I feel the response has been instantly dismissive."
She has since lodged a formal complaint which she plans to escalate to the financial ombudsman, which settles disputes between banks and customers.
Santander said it has the right to decline claims where there is "clear evidence that the customer has ignored the warnings around the use of their OTPs, allowed third party access to their PCs or given away security credentials".
A spokeswoman said: "Ms Pearson reported the loss to Santander at 6.47pm on February 22 and we informed the beneficiary banks straight away to secure the recipient accounts and any remaining funds.
"The case was investigated throughout the day on February 23 and our final decision letter was issued at 5.07pm.
"Throughout the day we were in contact with Ms Pearson to ensure the full facts were obtained.
"We are confident in our security systems and processes, which undergo robust testing before being introduced to our customers
We also offer customers the functionality to set up online alert SMS notifications for balances and payment alerts.”
"As soon as we become aware of any fraudulent payments, we notify the beneficiary banks, as we did in this instance, in order to try to secure and recover the funds.
"We advise customers who have been victims of a scam to contact the police and Action Fraud, and we always cooperate fully with any police investigation and hope that these malicious criminals are apprehended."
In another case earlier in the year, a Santander customer lost £23,000 to the very same scam.
Another similar scam has been targeting NHS patients, who have been sent texts asking for them to confirm personal details.
Top tips to protect yourself from scams
- NEVER give out personal or financial information on the phone or by email. Your bank, the police or any other organisation will never ask you for these in full.
- Never allow someone remote access to your computer following a cold call
- Don’t rely on caller ID – numbers can be spoofed by fraudsters to make it look like they’re calling from a trusted number
- Your bank, the police or any other company, will never call to ask you to transfer your money out of your account for security reasons
- Be wary of all cold calls claiming to be from banks, police, or other trusted organisations – if you have any concerns, call back on an independently verified number
- If you have fallen victim to a scam, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040
Speaking on ITV's This Morning on Tuesday, Claire said: “I received the text, but this wasn’t unusual as I’ve had messages from them before.
"It said there had been suspicious activity on my account, asked ‘do you recognise this transaction?’, if not call this number.
“I clicked the number and it called through, and the call went on for 30 minutes. The man I spoke to was lovely, we built up a rapport and he said they would send me a new card in three days."
Consumer expert Harry Wallop explained more about how the scam worked, advising others how to avoid being caught out.
He said: “This text message scamming is known as smishing and it is the new phishing.
“This is so sophisticated - they are spoofing a mobile number, with a message coming in to a string of legitimate texts you’ve already got from your bank.
“Alarm bells shouldn’t necessarily have rung when the text come through - but you should always call the number on the back of your bank card, not a number in a text message. The number on the message was a fake number.
“The second alarm bell should have rung when they asked for your password - an official bank call will NEVER ask for your password or security codes in full.”
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