I felt sick when a scammer stole £2k from my bank despite writing about fraud for 20 years – the red flags I ignored

The Sun

2 days ago

DRIVING home from an emergency vet trip for my miniature schnauzer, Luna, and my phone rang.
I pulled into answer and my mind was racing. It was two days before we were due to go on a two-week family holiday to France and I was juggling picking up the kids from nursery.
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'Hello? Is that Ruth Jackson-Kirby…', a calm man said, with a professional voice, 'I'm from Santander's fraud team. There's been a suspicious payment on your card'.
My stomach flipped. This is the last thing we need, I thought.
He knew everything - my name, my credit card provider, the exact product, the colour of the card, and even the last four digits of a card that I'd cancelled months earlier due to fraud.
'In order to reverse the transaction, I need you to approve it in your app,' he said.
He asked me how someone could've got my card details. Had I used it somewhere dodgy? Responded to any texts from HMRC or the police?
We spoke for around 20 minutes — he waited until I got home, as I didn't have the card with me.
Then he told me the transaction was with a car hire firm in Spain, Discovery Cars. He said he could reverse it — but I'd need to approve it in the app first.
I hesitated. But he reassured me that it was just a step in the refund process — and that only a Santander staff member could trigger the app notification.
I was flustered and distracted. I tapped approve.
Despite my two-decade long career as a financial journalist where I write about scams for a living, I didn't question it.
It was only when he started talking about a second transaction that I realised and hung up.
But it was too late - £2,059 disappeared from my bank.
I had become a victim of an impersonation scam – where criminals pose as your bank, the police or HMRC – are the most common cons around.
'Despite the rise of AI, what we're seeing right now is criminals continuing to use tried and tested methods,' a National Trading Standards spokesperson told The Sun.
'These include impersonation scams that see criminals bombard consumers with texts, emails or calls that appear to be from banks or other trusted organisations like the NHS, HMRC or parcel delivery firms.'
While I was on the phone to Santander – having dialled the number on the back of my card – he rang back five times. When I finally got through, the real fraud team confirmed I'd been scammed. A payment to Discovery Cars for £2,059.99 had gone through. I felt sick.
I couldn't believe I'd fallen for it. I've written about scams for 20 years. Now I was the victim.
Thankfully, Santander refunded the money four days later. But I barely slept in the meantime. I thought I'd lost the money.
'Scammers are ruthless – and impersonation scams are rife,' says Michelle Pilsworth, head of fraud and customer experience at Santander.
'Scammers use personal data that they have taken from interactions with the individual or via the dark web to convince them to trust them, and in turn, part with their money.'
Someone at Santander told me that it often starts with a text saying you need to pay a fine or unpaid bill. You click, tap in your details, hear nothing more.
Then a year or two later, a scammer uses those details in a call like the one I received.
The red flags I ignored
LOOKING back there were red flags on the call, I just didn't notice them.
The second time he called, my husband overheard and picked up on something I'd missed: the scammer used my maiden name.
I haven't been great at updating my name everywhere, but my bank would use my married name.
He also mentioned a credit card I'd cancelled — but that card wasn't from Santander. A real Santander employee wouldn't have had access to that.
And when I started hesitating, he turned up the pressure.
'We need to act now to reverse the payment,' he said. Creating urgency is a classic scam tactic, and I fell for it
In my case, the scammer put the charge on my credit card.
Santander refunded it quickly, but if they hadn't, I could've claimed under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
This law means credit card providers must refund you if the goods or service don't arrive, which they wouldn't have done, and they cost between £100 and £30,000.
If I'd paid straight from my current account, it would've been a type of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud.
Since new rules came in last year, banks must refund victims of APP scams — up to £85,000, though they can deduct a £100 excess.
But if you ignore your bank's warnings or wait too long to report the fraud, you might not get your money back.
The same scammer has called me twice since. Now I know what to do. 'I'll call you back,' I say, and hang up.
That's my advice to everyone. If someone calls saying they're from your bank or card provider – don't even listen. Don't argue. Don't let them draw you in.
Hang up. Then find the right number and call back yourself. If it's genuine, they'll tell you. And if it's not – you've just saved yourself a lot of money.
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