ONE PHONE CALL, AND SCAMMERS ROBBED ME OF £10K

Vicki, 44. left with £1 to her name after falling victim to bank fraud

- By JAMIE GREER

A WOMAN was left with £1.61 to her name after being scammed out of thousands of pounds following a phone call.

Vicki Jones, 44, from West Derby, says she lost £10,500 of her own money to scammers last week.

People can fall victim to scams when they offer an incentive, such as a discount on bills, or an opportunity to make money, which leads them to hand over personal information such as credit card details.

But Vicki said in her case the scammers, who said they were from a bank that she had two accounts with, claimed she needed to move money to a new holding account as her finances had been compromised.

She adds that they faked communications from Action Fraud - the organisation people are asked to report scams to. Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, takes reports from members of the public and businesses on behalf of the police.

The reports made to Action Fraud are then sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) which is run by the City of London Police and the organisation then decides whether a case will be passed on to a police force.

Vicki told the ECHO: “They [the scammers] rang me to say that there had been unusual activity on my account and they had stopped a few payments.

“They said to me that they were going to run through security with me. They didn’t ask anything out of the ordinary, they knew most of the information. I didn’t have to give any of my bank details or anything like that.”

Vicki said the scammers knew her name, address and were also aware she had two accounts with this bank and a third account with another bank.