Good Morning Britain viewers have defended Adam Rickitt as he appeared on the programme to share a warning to others after falling victim to a sophisticated banking scam. The former Coronation Street and Hollyoaks star was close to tears over the weekend as he spoke about the horrifying ordeal in an Instagram video.
He took to the social media platform to share what happened to him in a bid to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. Adam, who originally played Nick Tilsley in Corrie from 1997 to 1999 before launching a pop career, said he felt 'stupid' for getting tricked and claimed that the convincing scammers 'knew everything about him'.
"CONFESSION TIME! I know a lot of people will laugh at me for this... but I want to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else," he penned alongside a video of himself speaking to the camera from inside his bar, in Knutsford, Cheshire, which he owns with TV presenter wife Katy.
He explained how he got "completely scammed" by fraudsters impersonating Barclays bank. He said he "was 100% sure it was the bank" and "that they were helping me." He went on: "And that I wasn't even transferring funds or giving any details away. Alas the former wasn't true...they managed to duplicate everything I thought to be safe...they knew EVERYTHING about me and my history with the bank."
Appearing on GMB alongside Katy via video link from their bar, Adam told hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls about the scam ordeal and revealed just how much the scammers managed to get away with. He said that they removed £49,500 from his business account but said this wasn't their intention, and that the scammers had intended to wipe him of every penny.
"The scary thing is, that wasn't what they were aiming for. They weren't aiming for the £49,500, they were aiming to empty our entire business account," Adam, 44, said. "It was purely by chance after this two, three hour process, that I was able to spot that the money, that I was told would never be leaving our account, had actually been left and it wasn't [his bank] he was speaking to."
After Adam spoke about what had happened and shared what he thinks people should do, Katy shared her own warning after Susanna pointed out that this is the sort of thing she normally investigates for the programme. "As many people who I've interviewed in the past will say, there’s nothing like something happening to you to make you frantically look for every answer you can go for," she said.
"We have pulled our hair out over the last seven days. He had three hours of hell and we went through everything with a fine-tooth comb." She continued: “The reason we wanted to come on today is to try and help anybody – even one person – not get scammed. This guy was his best friend, he was stopping him from getting defrauded, although it turned out he was the fraudster.
"So if your bank rings you, hang up the phone and call the number on the back of your card so you 100 percent know you are getting through to your bank. We’ve learnt that the hard way."
She added: “If this happens to you, and this is what we’ve tortured ourselves with over the last week, it’s actually a real gamble whether you will get your money back. It's up to [the banks] whether they deem you to be ‘grossly negligent’. According to Which?, only 42 percent get their money back through the bank’s scheme.
"You then go onto the financial ombudsman, which has a 70 percent success rate, but that can take months and years. We know people in our town that have had something similar happen to them and are still waiting to get their money back. We’ve had people massage us saying, ‘Our mental health is going down the drain because we’re still waiting’, so we want this to change for other people."
Luckily for Adam and Katy, they did have their money returned to them. But as some listened and criticised Adam for falling victim to the scam, known as Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams, others spoke out in support and defence of the former soap star. @PoppysRantPage tweeted: "Lots of victim blaming tweets. Most of us have been victim to a scam, whether that be online or in person. Have some empathy. We’re not all as clued up as you apparently are. #GMB."
@DOPreston commented: "Lots of tweets blaming the victim of the scam here. It’s amazing how so many of you are clued up. #GMB." @SherriffStone shared: "In between all the smirking and smiling, Adam looks gutted and traumatised to be fair #GMB." @kimberley48 replied: "He told his story very clearly feel bad for him."
A spokesperson for Barclays previously told the Manchester Evening News they are unable to comment on specific cases, but warned of the dangers of banking scams. "We have every sympathy with our customer who was the victim of an impersonation scam. Scammers will often make calls and text messages look like they’re coming from a well-known company or organisation, such as a bank or the police.
"We encourage customers to be cautious of any unexpected text messages, calls and emails they receive and to be extra cautious if they are asked to call a number or open a link. No genuine bank would request customers to transfer money to a ‘safe account’ – we advise any customers to ignore anyone who asks to do this, whether it’s by phone, email or any other method, and to immediately alert us using the ‘Direct call’ option in the Barclays app.
"Customers should never reveal personal information, their PIN, PINsentry codes, mobile activation codes, QR codes, one-time passcodes or Online Banking passcodes." More information can be found on impersonation scams on the Barclays website.
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