3 days ago
‘I'm a scam expert but my mum still ended up on the suckers list'
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It was how tiny her usually indomitable mum looked when she revealed she had been a victim of a bank impersonation scam that still troubles Louise Baxter. The visible fragility as Linda, 76, got upset over the £6,450 she had nearly lost.
'She was ashen,' recalls Baxter, 45. 'And she looked small. She said to me, 'I feel like a vulnerable old lady.' I was like, 'Mum, you're not a vulnerable lady, you're a victim.' But it was really upsetting to see her like that because my mum is so fierce.'
She adds: 'I felt terribly upset she had been manipulated by somebody and I hadn't been able to protect her. And I also felt a bit helpless.'
Her description echoes the emotions of so many children of older scam victims, only with an extra note of self-recrimination: Baxter is the head of the National Trading Standards scams team. It's a team she set up in 2012 following a career with Trading Standards, and Baxter was awarded an MBE for her invaluable work in 2017. Yet even she couldn't stop her own mum from getting scammed.
Baxter acknowledges it is difficult to admit her own mother has become a scam victim – not only once, but on two subsequent occasions, which she goes on to discuss. She alludes to the jibes she expects this interview to elicit. 'I don't doubt people are going to put some horrible things in the comments – 'Oh, why was she so stupid – she's running the national scams team',' she says. It's an attitude towards victims that she's keen to turn around.
'I think Mum was worried about telling me because of what I do,' she admits. Linda only revealed the bank scam to Baxter the day after she had clocked her mistake while speaking to another family member, who suggested she call up the bank.
'She was shaking, and she kept saying, 'I'm stupid.' And I said 'you're not stupid.' I get up on stages and shout about the fact we have to change the language; we have to provide permission for victims to come forward because nobody reports this as a crime because of the blame and shame element.'
The art of the scam
Baxter explains she has always talked openly about scams with her widowed mum, a retired town clerk who lives in Eastbourne, East Sussex. She views her as fully clued up. 'She's amazing, very switched on. She tells me how to manage my money; she helps friends who are less computer savvy,' she says.
But Linda became ill with Covid in January 2024 and more isolated, and that affected her ability to process information and make decisions.
She clicked on a scam social media advert to buy a scented candle and afterwards received genuine communication from her bank saying there had been attempted fraudulent activity on her credit card. This communication meant that when the impersonation scam happened later, her defences were down.
Linda received a text one evening asking her to call her bank urgently to avert fraud and to respond using the telephone number given. A 'polite' chap called Simon took her account and bank log-in details and finally reassured her it was sorted. Within the hour a £6,000 loan was taken out on her account, and a further £450 was withdrawn to buy Royal Mint coins. Luckily, the loan withdrawal was stopped just in time.
Afterwards, Baxter spoke to her mother regularly about potentially suspicious texts, emails or calls, as Linda began receiving more of them. Baxter explains that once you respond to one scam, you land on what criminals call the 'suckers list' and are targeted more. 'If you don't respond, you drop off the list,' she explains.
Linda continued to ignore the scam communications until a couple of months ago, when she again bought items from adverts on Facebook, this time for the garden. She received a thank you note from the company but the items, costing £48, never arrived. The messages started up again.
Recently, she was caught off-guard and responded to a text stating she had a parking fine. She clicked on the link, which took her to a legitimate-looking government website, and entered her contact details, only stopping and calling her daughter before giving her bank details.
'She said, 'I've done something silly',' Baxter recalls. She says it's a terrible feeling – that people are 'watching' her mum. 'I can't be with her all of the time,' she says. She explains even the least vulnerable older person becomes so the more they are targeted. 'There's potential for more susceptibility because there's more chance you might respond,' she says.
Once a person has become a victim, they often lose confidence, too. 'The wellbeing and mental health effects are quite catastrophic, so it can sometimes catapult people into more vulnerability,' she says. She adds a staggering statistic: 'If you're elderly and a victim of a scam, you're two-and-a-half times more likely to die or go into residential care in the next 12 months.'
Family rifts caused by scammers
Baxter is no stranger to distressed families and, despite reiterating that anyone can become a victim, still cannot quite believe she is now one of those family members. 'There's a whole load of emotions I've dealt with (in families): frustration, desperation, the fact you haven't been able to protect them,' she says. 'A lot of shame as well. Why did I not notice? We should have visited more. And it can tear families apart. I've seen where criminals have isolated people and turned them away from their families.'
This is particularly true of investment or romance scams. Baxter knows families unable to ever heal rifts. 'The criminals have said 'you can't talk about any of this because they're going to be jealous', or 'they want your money for inheritance',' she says.
She describes scammers as groomers. 'They might phone on a daily basis, and so if a victim says 'my daughter says this is a scam' they'll say, 'I told you they were going to say that.'' The families won't be able to get through.
'Sometimes that could be because of cognitive decline, or because they've been coerced, controlled and emotionally manipulated to the nth degree, or it could be that there was a broken relationship before, so the criminals will hang on that,' she adds.
Baxter gives broad advice to anyone trying to help a family member who has been scammed. 'The first thing is communication,' she says. 'The more people share the fact they've been a victim, the more it gives permission for others to share.' That is why Linda wanted her to speak.
She also emphasises the importance of the right reaction you give a parent or grandparent. 'It's listening with empathy and no judgement. That first conversation is the most important, so they feel they can talk to you about it.'
Baxter stresses the importance of simply asking a family member if they're not sure about a purchase, or a message, or any other form of communication – and to 'pause'. 'Nothing is that urgent. Criminals rely on pushing us into what's called a 'hot state' when our decision-making processes are impaired,' she says. She just wishes Linda had called when 'Simon's' text first landed.
Scamming methods to beware of
Lottery and clairvoyant letter scams
These were rife when Baxter started working with Trading Standards 20 years ago, yet she explains they still are today. A lottery scam will suggest a big win if the recipient responds with an admin fee – but will also stress 'you mustn't tell anyone', explains Baxter.
A clairvoyant letter scam, meanwhile, will often appear to be in handwriting, repeatedly use the recipient's name, and claim a clairvoyant has seen 'money on the recipient's cards'. It will ask them to respond with money for their prediction or may even threaten them if they do not 'cross their palm with silver'.
These, says Baxter, are often the scams that victims don't reveal out of shame. 'Everybody's very focused on AI and the deepfake stuff,' she says, 'but in my world victims do tend to be over 70, and the old scam methods are still working.'
Impersonation scams
As Linda experienced, impersonation scams can be fake messages and calls from a bank, while it's also common for scammers to pretend to be the police or the NHS. And, while landlines are most prevalently used, mobiles are also targeted.
'The police one can sometimes be 'your bank account has been compromised, you need to go and get all your money out, and we're going to send a courier to collect it',' explains Baxter.
A call pertaining to being from the NHS might not feel financially threatening at all, but it's no less damaging. 'It could just be someone pretending to speak from the NHS to get your personal information, to get sensitive medical history so later they could target you,' she says.
Telephone scams
More broadly, telephone scams can encompass any hot topic that scammers pick. Recently, calls selling roof insulation have been frequent.
Baxter also lists a range of home goods and technology scams. 'We see 'you need to protect your washing machine and fridge freezer' and offers of an insurance-backed guarantee. Fake white goods protection policies will take a direct debit of £20 from your account each month. Older people might not access online banking and check their direct debits,' she says.
Then there is the call claiming your computer has been compromised. 'They'll say 'we're from Microsoft, we just need to help you to block it.' They'll get you on to your computer and give you some code that gives them access so they can scrape it.' She adds: 'Victims have even been offered a call-blocking subscription to protect their phone from criminals.'
Romance and 'pig butchering' fraud
Baxter explains that victims of romance scams tend to be in their 50s and upwards, with the scams becoming more prevalent as people try online dating in older age. 'People are in an online relationship with somebody, and then that person needs money for plane tickets, hospital bills, or house maintenance', she says.
She warns that romance scams can also evolve into a scam termed 'pig butchering'. This is when the victim is encouraged to make increasing financial contributions, usually in the form of cryptocurrency.
'The scammer will say something like, 'oh my God, I've had such a great day, I've just invested in this amazing scheme, it's going to make me millions of pounds.' And they talk about that a lot, and the victim will say, 'I've got £500 I can spare on that' – so you invite yourself in.' The 'butchering' later becomes apparent when the funds invested and the returns never appear.
'Hi Mum, it's me' texts
These aren't new but are still prevalent, warns Baxter. In the form of a text, the victim will receive a natural-sounding message purporting to be from their son or daughter needing financial help. 'It'll often start with 'Hi Mum, my phone just broke, so can you delete the number and save this one?'' says Baxter.
The conversation will continue depending on how the victim responds. ''I lost my phone' or 'I haven't got my bank account set up yet', or something like that. 'You couldn't just send £500 to my account?' and they'll send some details.'
