A WOMAN has told how sick 'spoofing' scammers went on the Louis Vuitton wave, gambling and taking out loans after stealing £50,000 from her bank account.
Sharna Williams fell victim to a scam where scammers change the way their phone number appears on your screen to make it look legitimate.
By the time she found out what was going on, the scammers had already spent as much as £50,000.
Sharna told the Sheffield star: “Scammers 'spoofed' the bank's number by taking over my accounts, savings and taking out personal loans.
“They visited Louis Vuitton and gambled in my name many times.”
Sharna's ordeal began in October when she received a call from someone saying they were from HSBC.
The caller said they suspected fraud on Sharna's HSBC account, which raised her suspicions.
She Googled the caller's phone number, with the search appearing to confirm that they were really from HSBC.
The caller asked Sharna to go through security checks to “make sure it was her.”
Sharna ran the checks and then responded to a voice recognition request.
She now realizes that the scammer was trying to impersonate her so they could log into her account.
The scammer denied Sharna access to all her accounts and her online banking platform.
She was unaware that she continued to use her cards normally – until she received a letter seven days later with a loan in her name for £14,500.
Sharna went to her local HSBC branch in Sheffield where she learned that the scammers had taken out huge loans in her name
She also discovered that the vicious thieves had stolen all her HSBC savings.
Her accounts showed the scammers had spent £1,800 on three trips to Louis Vuitton in London.
They also threw away her hard-earned money on a series of £500 Sky Bet gambling games.
How to protect yourself from fraudsters
ACTION Fraud recommends following the following advice to stay safe:
- When making a purchase, be wary of requests to pay by bank transfer or virtual currency instead of more secure methods, such as credit card or payment services such as PayPal.
- Listen to your instincts: if something feels wrong, it's usually good to question it. Do not pay for goods or services unless you know and trust the person or company.
- Personal information obtained from data breaches makes it increasingly easy for fraudsters to create highly targeted phishing messages and calls. Be alert to this.
- You should not assume that the caller is genuine just because he can provide some basic information about you.
- Always be suspicious of unsolicited requests for your personal or financial information.
After spending three hours in the branch trying to stop the damage, Sharna was left without money for the bus ride home.
She added: “I find it quite disturbing that after what happened to me, I was still expected to endure things online or on the phone.”
HSBC said: “Fraudsters are devious individuals who target vulnerable customers without considering the consequences of their actions or the impact this has on customers.
“This fraud was extremely complex and required the collaboration of several teams within the bank to correct it.
“However, in some aspects of the services we provided, we did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves.
“We are sorry for this and have apologized to the customer, with the matter resolved and compensation accepted in December 2023.
“The customer does have the option to submit her complaint to the Financial Ombudsman if she remains dissatisfied.”
Action Fraud boss Pauline Smith said Sharna's case “has not been transferred to police for investigation”.
She said: 'As more than 850,000 reports are received by the NFIB each year, not all cases can be passed on for further investigation.
“Reports are assessed on a number of criteria, including the vulnerability of the victim.”
What is 'spoofing'?
OFCOM says scammers are deliberately altering their caller ID – a ploy known as “spoofing”.
The trick is a way to imitate the number of a real company or person that has nothing to do with the actual caller.
Identity thieves who want to steal your bank account or login information use spoofing to pretend they are calling from your bank or credit card company.
Read more about spoofing on the Ofcom website.