Bristol businessman Marcus Gear was scammed out of almost £8,000 by a fraudster pretending to be calling from his bank. Starling bank has confirmed the incident, advising that anyone receiving a suspicious call should contact them immediately.
Mr Gear said he was contacted by a well-spoken man in September last year who said he was calling from Starling where he held his business account. “He was professional and advised me that the bank suspected fraudulent transactions were taking place on my account,” said Mr Gear.
“He was very convincing and genuinely sounded like he wanted to help me. I think it was also that sense of urgency,” he said, adding that the fraudster appeared to have all his personal details and bank details, including the number on the back of his card.
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Persuaded to use his bank's app, the fraudster told Mr Gear that the fraudulent payments which were taking place would be 'pushed' through the app and he would be able to reject them. The payments appeared for the exact amount the fraudster stated which was convincing and Mr Gear handed over code for his app account.
Once they had been through the process of rejecting the alleged fraudulent transactions, he was told that a new account would be opened for him and he must transfer the bulk of the remaining money, totalling £7,950 to the new account, which he did.
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“It is an intelligent scam, I was convinced with the first transactions and the process of rejecting them,” he said. He added that the big transfer of money at the end was the goal and that he knows three other people who have been scammed the same way.
“It seems to be a widespread scam. When the money left my account, I thought this is not genuine and immediately rang the bank. It has been very stressful” he said.
Having just started his own events company last June, Mr Gear said he was “living the dream” up until the scam took place. But there was a silver lining as he was awarded the lighting contract for the giant wave sculpture in Bristol Harbour shortly after, which enabled his business to continue.
Starling has since refunded his money. A spokesperson for the bank said: “Starling works extremely hard to protect its customers from fraud. Customers receive fraud warnings and guidance throughout the app when making significant payments, including a message that indicates that Starling will never ask customer to share a one-time payment code."
Mr Gear reported the matter to Action Fraud, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre. The scam is known as the authorised push payment scam, when the target is tricked into paying money into a new account, after being told that their account has been compromised.
Incidents of bank fraud should be reported to Action Fraud, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre which advice includes :
Don’t throw out anything with your name, address or financial details without shredding it first.
If you receive an unsolicited email or phone call from what appears to be your bank or building society asking for your security details, never reveal your full password, login details or account numbers. Most banks will not approach their customers in this manner.
If you are concerned about the source of a call, ask the caller to give you a main switchboard number for you to be routed back to them. Alternatively, hang up and call your bank back on the legitimate phone number printed on your bank statements.
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