A telephone scam has conned a woman out of £8,000, half of which was set aside to help pay for her daughter's wedding. The Courier reports that Sylvia Bentley, 65, a Coupar Angus pensioner, was recently contacted by con artists who claimed they were employees of her TV provider. Those scammers, in turn, tricked Bentley into granting them remote access to her computer, which they abused by emptying several of the victim's bank accounts, including one account containing £4,000 which Bentley had set aside to help pay for her daughter's wedding.
"They said they were from my TV provider and that they wanted to upgrade my box to a very special one. They said they would give me £200 because of the trouble I’ve had with it," Bentley explains. "They said, ‘we are putting this into your bank account now’ and when I looked into my bank account it said £1200. I said you’ve made a mistake and given me too much. He said, ‘oh goodness me, we will be sacked’ and asked me to pay it back to him."
At this point, the crooks accessed the victim's computer and claimed that Bentley's machine was infected with computer viruses. They offered to remove them for her, but during the cleanup process, the mother's banking account kept flashing on the computer screen. A call from her daughter ultimately revealed the truth:
“...[M]y daughter rang me and said, 'Mum, put the phone down, you are being scammed. Money is disappearing off your bank account,' as she has all the details in case of emergencies," Bentley recalls.
Sylvia Bentley (Source: The Courier) The victim's bank and local authorities are currently working with Bentley as they continue to investigate the incident. The victim could receive some money back, but she needs to wait two weeks before she finds out. Despite the web's popularity as a scamming platform, fraudsters and criminals still use targeted phone calls in an attempt to trick victims into disclosing personal information, making money transfers, or providing banking details. To learn more about scam phone calls and how you can spot one, click here.
