You and Yours Radio 4
The bank sent a recording of a scam the other day: “Go to your messages and listen,” read the text.
From a position of power – “I’d never fall for that” – I toppled almost immediately. The scammer was so convincing that I’d have done as I was asked. I’d have gone into in my bank app and sang like a canary when the caller spoofed me with traditional bank speak and asked for my ID number.
Scams are getting more and more sophisticated. None of us are immune.
It’s probably why people like my friend the solicitor still relies on good old-fashioned cheques.
The consumer programme You and Yours holds its finger to the pulse of today.
Recent topics include the cost of what’s in your shopping basket – nearly as frightening as a scam - home expert Sarah Beeny on the topic of how lino is having a moment (you can live too long) and the fact that Ugg boots are back in. I never knew they’d gone out.
But it was a scam in Instagram that proved gripping. Nicole is 36, savvy, astute but nevertheless she was scammed out of £1,000.
She said it was seeing a video from a friend whom she knows and trusts – that caught her out.
Her friend was saying on the video how a “money flip” had worked for him and how delighted he was.
Nicole private messaged him and asked if it was real, he said yes. Convinced by this confirmation from someone she trusted, she put her money in to the scheme.
She then got a call to say she had won £20,000. The scammers asked her to post a video saying how excited she was and how well she had done with this “money flip”.
They asked for her Apple ID and password to verify her identity before transferring the money to her.
But very quickly, she found herself locked out of her Instagram account and locked out of her device.
They had her followers and her contacts; they even had a video of her sounding elated about how well she had done with this “money flip”.
And if any of her friends contacted her to check if it was true .. then the scammers could send messages back pretending to be her.
“It was so disturbing. I was up all night. I was hysterical,” she said.
Her friend who had also got caught and whose video and messages persuaded her to invest money said he felt “so guilty and so bad”.
“I just helped ruin someone’s life,” he said.
The fact that he was a victim too did not seem to help - This was, said the very wise You and Yours presenter Winifred Robinson “a very toxic chain letter”.
What’s worse said Nicole was that the hackers were still messaging pretending to be her.
Worse still, despite contacting Meta (Facebook), she couldn’t get a proper response and she couldn’t get it to end.
Step in You and Yours, and Meta immediately acted to remove accounts impersonating others. The programme makers believe a total of 50 were removed.
Maybe off the grid is a safer place, below the radar, ye olde world of the cheque.
ENDS
