How one nan, 86, lost her £43k life savings after scammers posing as police convinced her to buy Rolex watches
A GRANDMOTHER who is a carer for her husband with dementia was scammed out of her entire life savings of £43,000 by con artists who convinced her to buy Rolex watches.
Janet, 86, was convinced that the only way to protect her money was to purchase the jewellery, which would then be collected by a courier, under the assumption that she would be reimbursed afterwards.
She bravely shared her story on This Morning to raise awareness about the sophistication of phone scams, which primarily target the elderly.
“The enormity of it just fills you up,” she said. “I went numb.”
In April last year, Janet was called over a period of three days to build trust by the swindlers before they persuaded her to hand over tens of thousands of pounds.
On the first day of the scam, she received a call supposedly from the Police Fraud Squad, where she was told somebody had tried to use her card to buy petrol and furniture the night before.
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A scammer posed as a detective named PC Harris and convinced Janet that there were three cyber criminals targeting vulnerable people in her home town of St Albans.
On the second day of the con trick, he told Janet that the criminals had swindled £38,000 out of her account and deposited it in a bank in Germany.
However, he assured Janet that British fraud police had intersected the transfer and returned the money in full to her account.
The scammer called her back on the third day, continuing to pose as a detective, and said that the police were advising people whose accounts have been ‘compromised’ to buy high-value goods that the police would reimburse them for.
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Janet wasn’t convinced that she was actually speaking to a cop, so challenged him on the proposition.
The scammer then informed her that if she hung up, dialled 999 and told the operator his badge number, she would be reconnected to him on the phone.
Extraordinarily, this worked. Janet called the emergency number and was reconnected with the scammer after providing the badge number.
This is because the con artists, who were operating as a group, had tapped into her landline and were able to intersect her calls.
They also tapped into her mobile phone and kept the line engaged permanently, so that they could hear her conversations and prevent her from making any outbound calls.
Janet was then convinced to head to a local jeweller, view some Rolex watches worth around £43,000 and then wire that money directly to the jewellery shop.
What to do if you think you’ve been scammed
IF you’ve lost money in a scam, contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or by visiting Actionfraud.police.uk.
You should also contact your bank or credit card provider immediatley to see if they can stop or trace the cash.
If you don't think your bank has managed your complaint correctly, or if you're unhappy with the verdict it gives on your case you can complain to the free .
Also monitor your credit report in the months following the fraud to ensure crooks don't make further attempts to steal your cash.
The sum of £43,000 was her entire life savings with her husband David, who is suffering from dementia and Janet works as a full-time carer for.
Janet collected the Rolex watches after the bank teller wired the money over.
She then returned home with the jewellery, and the scammers sent a courier, who was a young lad, to their house to collect them.
Once the watches had been handed over, the scammer wasn’t on the phone to Janet anymore, despite being insistent on keeping her on the line for the past three days.
All of a sudden, there was nobody on the phone. And I thought, ‘wait a minute’. I haven’t got my money, I haven’t got my watches. The enormity of it just fills you up. I went numb
Janet
This is when the penny dropped for her.
“Dinner was on the go and then all of a sudden, there was nobody on the phone,” she said.
“And I thought, ‘wait a minute’. I haven’t got my money, I haven’t got my watches.
“The enormity of it just fills you up. I went numb.”
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Janet was not able to get any of her money back, but feels the bank shouldn’t have let her transfer such a mammoth amount of money as easily as she did.
“The bank did nothing,” she said. “There was nobody in the bank.”