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My granddaughter fell victim to a scam in July and lost almost £2,000. Please could you help me? Your bank, Chase, doesn’t want to know. He is 21 years old and graduated from the University of Bristol this year and is working hard to get some money. She is distraught.
JP, Devon.
Sally Hamilton responds: In her email, she attached a note from her granddaughter describing what happened. My heart sank when I read the opening paragraph: “On 20 July, I received an email from the gov.uk website stating that I was owed a tax refund of approximately £480.”
There is a ‘tax refund’ scam, designed to deceive those who legitimately expect a refund from the taxman. Victims receive an email or text message that looks official and includes a link they must click to request a tax refund.
However, it links to a website created by scammers. When victims fill out their details, believing it is to apply for a tax refund, they hand it directly to the scammers, who can then loot their bank accounts.
Her granddaughter thought she had clicked on the official gov.uk website. You entered your details and received confirmation that your details had been submitted successfully and appeared genuine.
He was further convinced when the scammers assigned him a ten-digit ID for future reference, just as you would expect from an official service. Everything seemed in order and he thought his tax refund would soon be on its way.
Two days later, the horror story began to unfold. He received a call claiming to be from the fraud department at Chase, his bank.
The caller said someone was trying to buy something on their account at Argos in Aberdeen for £300. He was then asked if he had received any emails from Amazon, eBay or gov.uk.
He took a closer look at the gov.uk email and realized it didn’t look like one from an official sender. The caller told him to delete it from his inbox to protect himself. He then claimed that his savings account was not safe and that he should move the balance to his checking account.
He immediately transferred £2,099.95. The scammer told him that all he had to do was approve the transfer in the Chase banking app and Chase could refund any fraudulent transactions attempted on his account.
She never doubted that it was Chase who was on the line, as the caller constantly assured her that her actions would protect her against fraud.
However, a minute later, £1,955.76 left his account to ‘Travel FX’. He expressed concern, but was again told not to worry and that they would refund his money in the next few days.
The next day doubts took over him. She called Chase and, to her dismay, the bank said its last contact with her was in December 2023. Annoyed, she explained the events and the bank opened a fraud case. After two weeks, she said the money would not be returned because, in her opinion, she had not carried out due diligence.
He filed a complaint and stressed that he was now in a desperate financial situation. The case was reviewed, but with the same result: no refund.
Seeing how angry your granddaughter was, you came to see me. Some readers may wonder why you would accept a case where a customer didn’t do the checks before handing over the money. But I could see that a scammer had pressured his granddaughter using sophisticated social engineering techniques to scare her into moving her money to a “safe” location. She was a victim of unauthorized fraud, so I decided to pursue Chase about the case.
Despite my efforts, the bank remained unmoved and repeated its argument that she had not carried out due diligence and ignored the bank’s warnings.
A Chase spokesperson says: ‘We take our commitment to helping customers stay protected from fraud and scams very seriously. When the customer attempted to verify the payment, we provided clear warnings about the card transaction and stated that Chase will never call a customer to ask them to transfer money or approve a payment.
“Unfortunately, despite those warnings, the customer proceeded to authorize the debit card payment to the scammer’s account.”
I have hit a brick wall but I urge your granddaughter to take her case to the impartial Financial Ombudsman Service in the hope that they will take a different view. Meanwhile, if you receive an email or text message offering a tax refund, it doesn’t mean Christmas has come early – delete it immediately to prevent your life savings from becoming a gift to a scammer.
And beware of calls from your bank that come out of the blue.
Giles Mason, from UK Finance-backed anti-scam campaign Take Five, says: ‘Criminals will manipulate customers into revealing personal details to steal money. Be careful with personal information and never share one-time passwords. More information at takefive-stopfraud.org.uk.
I have twice been denied a claim for costs against Aldi for breaking my dentures with their pitted green olives. He said he was sorry but he wouldn’t help with the repairs (totalling £187.99) because there was a warning on the container. I am almost 75 years old, I am diabetic, I suffer from glaucoma and I have had seven eye surgeries, so such small print is very difficult to detect. Please help.
I’m Shrewsbury.
Sally Hamilton responds: aldi He was extremely polite in rejecting her claim. He said finding a pit in a pitted olive was “weird” but not unheard of and so stated on the package. You sent me the label and I agree that the font is lowercase and that the warning is challenging to read.
You told me you spend £100 a week at Aldi so I thought it was the least I could do to contribute to your new gnashers.
Following my intervention, Aldi acted quickly and sent her a store voucher for £188 – the full cost of her dentures. You said you were happy with this and now you could smile again.
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