Have you been the victim of Cyber Crime?
Much to my dismay I recently became a victim of cyber crime. Something I never thought I would.
It has left me feeling angry, ashamed and frustrated at my stupidity and at the audacity and lack of consideration shown towards another human being.
I'm sharing my story, not necessarily for you to ridicule me, although I'm sure a lot of you will. Hey that's your concern, not mine. But I want to make as many people aware of the process of this fraud so that you can PROTECT YOURSELF.
Thinking back I could have stopped it from happening, if I'd only taken the time to STOP AND THINK.
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It all started when I received a text message regarding a none parcel delivery from the purported Hermes courier, earlier in the week. I felt it was asking for too much information and I was annoyed about the idea of paying for a missed delivery, so I sent back a nasty email saying the guy hadn't tried to delivery the parcel as I would have heard him as I work from home.
A few days went by then the same message came again. This time I had been out walking, so I couldn't say for sure if they had tried to deliver my outstanding parcel and that is when my stupidity began.
I filled out my name bank details and payment information, including my security code on the back of card, the same as you would for making online card payments. The payment they requested was minimal £1:45. After I paid it a screen came up to tell me that my parcel will be delivered by 7:35am the following morning.
I thought nothing more about it and waited for my delivery.
Much later that evening I received a phone call from 'Clive' (I don't think that was his real name). He claimed to be from my bank's fraud office. He informed me that the bank had noticed irregular activity against 3 payments on my account and told me the amount of each one. He told me that he was going to reverse the payments for me.
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I opened my banking app on the phone and followed his instructions, which when thinking about it now were ludicrous. First I had to look at my transactions and lo and behold there we're three transactions I didn't recognise.
(Why was I surprised this should be the case? Because it hadn't entered my head that someone who had made the transactions would call to point them out.)
The largest one was for someone with the initials N B with a bank sort code starting with 11-.
* This was all I needed to believe the guy was genuine.
* He had told me that the delivery message was probably fraudulent.
* The name and amounts he was talking about were showing on my transaction page.
Here's the bit where my gullibility reared it's ugly head. I was informed to make the same payment again but use the word EXCHANGE as a reference, so that it would identify the payment that was being refunded.
For some bizarre reason I pictured the same kind of transaction as I would do in a shop where you pop your card back in the reader, pop in your pass code and the money would be refunded to your account.
So with that belief I followed his instructions and made what I thought was a reverse payment. I was even panicking when I couldn't remember my password to reverse the payment. I use a digit print to protect the account. Unfortunately I found it, so that's why I was able to proceed.
Things went from bad to worse when it came to using my card reader a much larger amount was transferred,even though I questioned why this amount needed to be reversed. I was told because it had also been taken.
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I have to use my online banking service on a laptop to work the card reader so why I was on the phone with Clive, I used the online chat to ask if this call was genuine? I was asked by online chat to give them the number I was receiving the call from and the reason for the chat. I explained that it was about a fraudulent payment. The reply was that the fraud office had stopped a fraudulent payment for the same amount and if this call was concerning this issue, then it was probably genuine.
The other most obvious crazy thing that I didn't take slowly enough was that when genuine text messages appeared on my phone from the bank and I started to read them I was coached what to do next so that I wouldn't continue.
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I had so many opportunities to stop what was happening but because the messages used the terminology 'move' and I equate sending money to other people as 'pay' not move or transfer (that's when I move money around between my own accounts) and because I was constantly being told that everything was alright and coached with each step, the red warning light that should have been going off in my head didn't. I didn't automatically think I'm making another payment to this same person
I know it all sounds stupid and so unbelievable, but after talking with this person for an hour they've captured your trust.
I kept questioning each payment, but was assured that all these exchange payments we're being sent to the payment office to reverse the payments already made.
I more than questioned the fact that my account dipped out of the black into the red, but once again I was told that it would take 15 to 30 minutes to get the funds moved back.
I waited around 15 minutes and nothing had happened, so I once again used the bank's online chat regarding the state of the account. They advised me to call the fraud office, which I did straight away. Even while I was talking to the bank's fraud team, Clive on the same number he'd used tried to call me again.
Initially I was shaking with the reality of what had happened as I answered all the questions I needed to open the scam case and the fraud case files.
Luckily one of the payments had already been stopped so that was returned to my account along with a couple of other payments.
The following day Clive tried to call me again about the blocked payment. I let the phone ring. I don't want to give numbers away. I don't want Clive spooked until the police have time to trace the origin of the call, which when I called back was a fraud line for a different bank.
I don't know if I will get the rest of my stolen money back. It depends if it's been taken out of the beneficiary bank before my bank could put a stop on it. Hopefully they did. I'll know in 21 days.
It's left me with no online banking or cards for about a week. I also need to have my computer and phone cleaned to make sure that they are safe before I set up online banking again.
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| Photo by King's Church International on Unspl |
So back to answer my question posed at the beginning, how do you protect yourself from cyber crime?
1) Delete messages if you don't recognize the number
2) ignore calls from numbers you don't recognize - if they are important they will leave you a message.
3) send a text message to the number that's phoned asking them to identify themselves then check out it's genuine before contacting them back.
4) if you do talk to the person, don't open bank app or online account. call back after you've checked with the bank that they have made the call. Use numbers on back of cards to contact the banks fraud office to check. A genuine caller won't try to disuade you.
6) If in doubt cut the call
7) take time to read text messages from bank
5) learn the terminology - MOVE = PAY
6) banks will never ask you to make a payment to reverse a payment
7) report any incident to the bank and the police you have, no matter how ashamed you feel
8) have your computer and phone checked to make sure they're clean
If nothing else. I hope that you can learn from my mistakes, especially understand that some people are so selfish they don't care about hurting others.
I believe in people. I always see the good in them. I love to help others. Sadly I've learned not everybody is the same. The internet has made crime easy and for people like me it's been an unwelcome practical learning curve.
My decision -
*not answer my phone when it rings again,
*delete all message, unless I know who they're from.
I might even go as far as getting a new phone or at least a new sim.
I've hated this learning experience, but I'm more lucky than a lot of people.
My hope is that YOU DON'T EXPERIENCE CYBER CRIME and that my experience and tips will prevent you from being another cyber crime statistic.
WHEN TEXT MESSAGES COME ON YOUR PHONE - CHECK THE NUMBER the webpage it sends you to - it's at the top of the page - IF IT'S A MOBILE NUMBER DELETE IT!
