I very nearly lost £2,000 and was only saved by divine intervention
Says: Sandra – London (verified true personal story)
I was at home doing some work on my computer when I received a phone call from someone claiming to be from my Internet provider. He informed me that my Computer had some virus threats loaded onto it that needed to be cleared off.
He informed me that he can either remove them remotely or otherwise send me a USB memory stick that I could plug into my Laptop/Computer if I would rather.
I thought that as he was already on the phone he could remove them for me straight away rather than me waiting days for this USB memory stick to arrive.
So I gave him permission to go ahead with the remote service and he duly provided me with the details I needed.
Once he had control of my computer he then proceeded to settings and then he did some searches and showed me some files that he said had been corrupted and that he was going to clear them off and then clean up my machine.
After doing this he told me that because he found that I had been a target and my computer had been attacked by these virus threats he had permission to provide me with a refund of £299.00 today.
I asked if there were any other ways that I could get this refund and he told me that the company can send me a cheque in the post but that would take about 14 days then I would have to wait for it to clear, where has he was online now and could put the credit directly into my account and I could go out and spend, spend spend.
So I said ok and logged into my internet banking and he informed me that he was now going to put this money directly into my account, and I said ok.
A minute or two later after he’d been fiddling around online he said “OH NO” so I asked what the matter was and he informed me that instead of putting just £299 he had accidentally transferred £2999.00 (nearly three grand into the account).
I checked and there it was: £2999.00 had been added to my Current Account balance.
He cried and begged me if I could help him out as he did not wish to get the sack from the company, as he had a family to look after and he did not want to lose his job.
So therefore he asked if I could go directly to the bank and transfer this money into a Dummy Account that he would give me and that way the company won’t find out what he’d done.
So Off I went in my car, but whilst I was on the way to the bank a friend phoned me and asked what I was up to and I told her the situation and informed her that I was on my way to the bank to transfer this money for the poor man.
Instantly she told me not to be foolish, that it sounded like a scam, and that I should go back home and turn off my computer. I took her advice and when I got home I crept into my living room and saw that the guy was still waiting online for me to come back, so I crept under my desk and pulled my computer electric lead from the wall socket.
Two weeks later I noticed that the money was still sitting in my current account so I decided to transfer this money into my savings account until the company contacted me for their money.
When I asked the cashier for the balance of my saving account (what I had in there) and she told me what my balance was, instantly I was shocked because it was then that I realised what happened the guy had transferred the money that was in my savings account into my current account and had I not have had that phone call I would have been transferring my own money.
