Have you been scammed?

[Roses]

This week the BBC 1 'Morning Live' programme has been talking about keeping scam safe. It is certainly worth watching. Although scammers often target the elderly and vulnerable, even the highly intelligent and younger people can be taken in by scams, which often cost people thousands of £s.

Facebook, on which many people post, is often a place where which is targetted by scammers, I used to post on that site some years ago, but wasn't comfortable with it and closed my account, I am so glad I did. I know several people who have been targetted by scammers on the site, someone only the other day.

Have any posters on R&E been targetted by scammers and lost money?

[Harrowby Hall]

I was scammed about 13 years ago. My bank current account had about £20,000 taken from it.

I had received a telephone call about which I was suspicious. I then telephoned my own bank not realising that the earlier call line could remain open thus leaving me open to fraud.  I found myself having to deal with the thief about three times.

After four days it became necessary to go into the local brance of the bank concerned and it was then that I learned of the theft. I learned that part of my money had been used to pay off a car loan debt. I then went to the local police station and made a formal statement. About a week later I was informed that the sums stolen had been restored.

[jeremyp]

Had my debit card skimmed once about five years ago. Four transactions were made on it mostly in London. The bank restored the money to me.

One of the transactions was to pay a congestion charge fine for London. That seems somewhat crazy to me because TfL definitely had had the registration and keeper's address of the car that transgressed so I'd like to think the scammers got caught, although I never heard anything about it.