I don’t recognise myself in the media portrayal of vulnerable scam victims. I am a 33-year-old professional with no health problems. I have worked on projects to do with scam awareness, and I didn’t think it would happen to me. I didn’t realise it was a scam when people pretending to be from my bank, Revolut, called me up, used social engineering to get me into a total panic, and tricked me into transferring £20,000 of my savings for my upcoming wedding. It began with two texts, purportedly from Hermes and six days apart, requiring two £1.50 admin fees to reschedule two missed deliveries. Since I was expecting a Hermes delivery of a sofa, I wasn’t suspicious, and I used the link to pay the two fees with my Revolut and Nationwide debit cards.
Three days later I was called by an agent claiming to be from Revolut, who told me my account had been compromised by a phishing attack. I was then contacted by a caller who said they were from Nationwide. I checked the phone number on Google and it appeared to be genuine. I was told I was being transferred to the “national fraud agency” and given a case number. Eventually, with plausible explanations, they persuaded me to move £20,000 from my Nationwide to my Revolut account, and then to another newly opened account in my name. Several generic scam alerts did pop up on the Revolut app, but the caller reassured me it was because it was a new account. At this point I was crying, but I was so caught up in trying to escape the first phishing scam and the belief that they were helping me that I did what they said. By the time I realised I had been scammed, the money was gone. Revolut is refusing to reimburse me, despite the fact that the transfer was out of character. The irony is that it was because the money was for my wedding that I was so eager to protect it.
AB, Birmingham
