I lost £150,000 to a fraudulent account the bank knew about

Bank of America had been told about the fraudulent account, but it was not frozen. Photograph: Alamy

I’m desperate. A year ago, I transferred £150,000 from my Virgin Money account to one that I believed to be a one-year fixed-rate bond with Prudential. In fact, it belonged to fraudsters. I discovered it was a fraud 12 months later when the bond was due to mature.

Virgin Money is refusing to refund me because it asked me to verify the beneficiary account before allowing the first payment. I duly checked the company registration number, which did belong to Prudential, and phoned Prudential customer services to confirm it was a genuine company.