Victim of clone scam wins back £106,000

We help reader recover savings lost to crooks in fake bank con

- PENMAN

THIS was brilliant news to come back to – a reader who lost more than £106,000 to an investment fraud has got it all back.

For almost a year I’ve been helping retired motor engineer Raymond Egerton battle against his bank.

The saga began when Raymond, who doesn’t use computers, asked a friend to help find a risk-free investment offering decent returns.

The friend searched online and found what appeared to be a Goldman Sachs account with 4% interest and promising “safety and security”, with his money being protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Raymond, 78, went to his local branch of Santander in Stafford and transferred £25,000 one day and £81,000 the next.

Because he does not use a computer it wasn’t until months later that he discovered that his money had gone to crooks who had cloned the Goldman Sachs website and he’d lost everything.

These are known as “authorised’” scams, because victims agree to transfer their money, unaware they’ve been tricked into sending it to crooks.