There’s no such thing as an easy dollar, so it’s not a surprise that some people try to cheat the system instead of earning an honest living. Movies and TV shows depicting fraud and deceit are always popular, and a big part of that is the chance to learn from the mistakes of others and protect ourselves against similar schemes. Family and lifestyle forum Mumsnet user UhOhhhhh was watching Love Rats, a documentary series about how criminals manipulate and con unsuspecting victims, pretending to be interested in them romantically, and decided to ask the community if they know anyone who’s been scammed. Turns out, yes, they have.
#1
My mum. In real life, rather than online. She just wouldn’t listen to me when I asked her why a 30 year old married man would be interested in a nearly 70 year old woman. In the end I had to forbid her from talking about him to me. Over £10,000 later (which she didn’t have, so was all on loans and credit cards) she had to sell her house to pay it off and ended her life in debt in a council bungalow (which she was damn lucky to get!)
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#2
A middle aged divorced man I know invested about £60k in a get rich quick scheme on the advise of a v attractive and much younger woman he had met in a bar and to whom he became engaged after meeting just once and lots of loving texts. Funnily enough he never saw woman or money again. What goes through these men’s minds? It beggars belief.
My mum was contacted on her landline by scammers saying they were from Amazon or something of the sort and trying to prevent fraud and asked for bank details etc. My mum fell for it and would’ve handed said bank details over but she was blind and couldn’t read the security number on her card. Luckily she called me to ask what to do and I told her to put the phone down and nothing was taken. My mum was a very sharp no nonsense woman back in the day but her age and disabilities had made her vulnerable. Fucking cunts preying on old people.
Image source: THisbackwithavengeance , Toa Heftiba
#3
My 80 year old neighbour was scammed to the tune of around £30,000. He told me this in tears, it was his life savings, he’d wanted to leave it to his daughter. He’d been contacted about an investment scheme, and asked to invest £500. Within a few weeks his bank account had been credited with around £800. This convinced him it was genuine and he then invested £30k. Never heard from anyone again. Lost the lot. Police couldn’t help. I always wonder what would have happened if he’d just taken the £800 and stopped there. Would he have scammed the scammers?
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#4
A friend fell for the ‘Mum I lost my phone’ scam
Image source: hazelnutvanillalatte , Prostock-studio / Envato
#5
I was scammed out of £800 by a fake tradesperson when I was a young adult. Not thousands but it was a lot of money to me and caused undue stress and upset.
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#6
Friend’s mother was in her seventies, hugely obese with a lot of medical conditions as a result and wheelchair bound and fell for a romance scam from an ‘American soldier’. She sent him tens of thousands and died shortly after it was discovered. Poor lady.
another friend had a call from ‘her bank’ saying she had been hacked and her m savings were in the process of being stolen. She gave the caller remote control of her online banking and they stole every penny.
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#7
A friend’s elderly MIL. Scammers called her and pretended to be her bank. She was savvy enough to say she needed to call her bank’s number to be sure it was her bank, but they stayed on the line and kept up the pretence. She lost £30k.
Image source: TheMaenads, NatalieZera / Envato
#8
Guy at work nearly fell for a romance scam.
His Russian girlfriend text to say she had got ‘stuck in customs’ on the day she (allegedly) flew out to meet him & needed 2k to be released.
Thankfully he asked our boss to lend him the cash, so he was able to intervene & point out it was obviously a scam and no Russian beauty was actually waiting for him at Birmingham International.
Image source: WeeWigglet, Vitaly Gariev
#9
No but when I needed to make a 10kish payment to someone the bank made me call them and absolutely grilled for about 20 minutes me before they would release the money. It was a pain as it was a genuine transaction but I’m glad they take the time to try to stop these things (although it is to protect themselves mainly)
Image source: Xmasrefname, Hudson Graves
#10
I’ve lost money trying to get a good deal by buying a voucher to then get the item, but it was out of stock so money voucher wasn’t able to be redeemed. Won’t ever do that again.
Also I tried to rent a flat, private landlord that seemed legit initially when showing me around Then I smelled a rat so did some checks and cancelled the cheque. It was a scam.
I’ve seen a few fairly convincing email phishing scams too. Not actually fallen for them though.
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#11
A lady I worked with was scammed out of a lot of money by a man she met online, we all warned her but she was adamant he was genuine no matter what we said
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#12
I know a very intelligent man who was scammed out of A LOT of money in a crypto scam. It’s not just lonely old women.
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#13
I find it astonishing how naive some people are. For example, the woman who appeared on This Morning to warn others of romance scams after she was duped out of £££ by “Gerard Butler”.
My mum is around her age and if she announced to me/other family members that she was in a relationship with “Gerard Butter” but had never actually met or indeed spoken to him we’d set her straight pretty quickly!
Image source: WorldKeepsSpinningRound
#14
My mum nearly transferred money to a scammer, thankfully the teller at the bank quizzed her about the transaction (circa £9500). The scam was a call from “Head Office” stating her bank branch was unreliable and committing fraud so she was to transfer the money to another account!
Since this is unusual for my mum the teller asked her to speak to the manager and they uncovered the scam. My mum was warned not tell the bank or her children as this would cause issues. Luckily my Mum can’t lie for toffee hence the manager preventing the transfer.
Image source: ItIsMyName , Atlantic Money
#15
My teenage son with his first bank card. They cloned his card, not once, not twice, not three times, you gussed it four times in as many months. In fact the last card hadn’t even been delivered and it was used hundreds of miles away. The bank refunded all the monies. I suspect it was someone from the bank
Image source: ImNotTheMatix , Getty Images
#16
My SIL fell for someone on line and borrowed 7k to send to him
Image source: isitsnowingyett , ckstockphoto / Envato
#17
I did, many years ago by a driving instructor – only about £250,but it was a lot to me then.
I didn’t get it back, but got huge satisfaction from reporting him for VAT and tax evasion – saw it reported in the local press about a year later.
Image source: ThinWomansBrain , Andrej Lišakov
#18
I got scammed out of a grand. The scammers had rung pretending to be my bank. The number they rang me with was my bank’s number so I trusted it. I had just made a large purchase online and assumed they were checking it was genuine.
After i had realised they were scammers and i had hung up on them I rang my bank’s number. Except I hadn’t, I rang the scammers. They told me I couldn’t lock down my account and order a new card until 8am the following morning! They proceeded to attempt to make many many online purchases, which thankfully my bank automatically twigged and froze my card.
DH rang my bank from his phone and I did get my money back eventually, but it very stressful.
Image source: Crayfishforyou, Taylor Grote
#19
My husband was scammed out of £1500 when a tradesman’s email was hacked so he was given false bank details to make the payment for some work we had done. He was replying to the same email chain the tradesman had used when discussing dates for the work so there were no red flags at all. He’s a pretty cynical lawyer so not easily scammed.
A friend’s mum with dementia gave away about £80k to scammers sending her various investment and charity scams. My friend told her they were scams. He even got a police officer friend to come round and tell her, but she wouldn’t stop giving money to these people. Eventually my friend moved in with her as her carer and was able to intercept the begging letters in the post and put a stop to it. These people are scum.
Image source: eurochick , Maxim Ilyahov
#20
Many of my friends along with members of my family were scammed out of £400-£1000 each by a so called friends DH.
Turned out they weren’t the only ones.
Police were involved and they both left the country.
So called friend came back recently when he was arrested in the country they moved to for you guessed it…… fraud!
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#21
my mum sold something very expensive online and the person paid with fake notes, not sure how she didn’t notice they were very obviously fake.
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#22
Older, unwell in-law lost a few thousand to a phone scammer purporting to be her son, saying they were in financial trouble.
We got the money back for her, from her bank. The whole thing was devastating for her.
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#23
I met someone who fell for the American Soldier romance scam. She was quite young and very lonely. I can’t see how she didn’t know it was a scam, I suspect she enjoyed the attention even though she knew it wasn’t genuine. She couldn’t afford the money she sent.
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#24
I’ve been scammed. I.wont say how as it’ll be outing, but not a romance scam or sending money abroad or anything like that
I was scammed for 15k, and the knock on impact meant I lost quite a bit more money than that.
It made me feel sick, ashamed, sad, desperate and overwhelmed.
I just don’t know how people live with themselves when they commit these scams.
Image source: BaklavaRocks, Getty Images
#25
Neighbour’s dad sent loads of money to an animal charity. A real charity but they kept sending letters begging for more cash and he donated about 50000 pounds in the end, his savings. Not a scam but not right in my book.
My best friend was scammed out of 10000 Euros, i.e. first three months’ rent, for a flat that didn’t exist. They were very clever and she was very desperate as flats are so hard to find here.
Image source: AnnaDelvorkina, Andrej Lišakov
#26
My lovely, previously switched on 90 year old Dad. Classic con. Roofer knocked at door said working in street noticed problem with his roof persuaded him to drive to bank to get cash to pay for work .No work done. £800 Never seen again.Police were very supportive but nothing could be done. I was SO SO angry that my Dad had become a target
#27
A neighbour of mine lost £45k by someone pretending to be the fraud squad from her bank. She still refuses to believe the “nice man” probably isn’t even called Luke
Image source: MelainesLaugh , Cory Woodward
#28
My mum scammed my grandmother out of thousands. It went to civil court, one of the many reasons I am no contact with her
Image source: DeepLimeBird , Christian Buehner
#29
A friend’s mother was taken in by a scammer who represented himself as a Master Sergeant in the US Army, serving in the Middle East. She tried to convince her mom that it was a scam, and that a real army sergeant would not be constantly skint unless he had serious vices he was paying for.
She turned to me for help because I served in the US Army and have known them both for years. I’m an American. It took several phone calls and emails, but I was able to show her how much money a noncommissioned officer with that rating would make on deployment (quite a lot of money) and convince her that he would not have to pay for medical care, permission to take leave and all sorts of other expenses he was asking her to pay for. She blocked him, but at that point she was out about $10k.
Image source: MissConductUS, Wesley Tingey
#30
My MIL fell for an email from someone who she believed was her friend, asking her to buy supermarket vouchers on her behalf and sending the scammer the voucher numbers.. She did it a couple of times before her daughter caught her doing it and did some digging. She lost about £300
Image source: familyissues12345 , Getty Images
#31
I was accused of trying to scam a shop. On holidays at a supermarket checkout. I had an expensive bottle of alcohol that had gone through and someone walked off with it. I didn’t see anyone take it but when I went to start bagging my shop I realised it wasn’t there. I tried to explain that the person before me must have taken it, and I needed to get another. Got told no, they had seen this happen before and I had to pay for it. I got really stressed until I realised I could just leave (I hadn’t payed yet) and do my shopping somewhere else.
Image source: Guest100, Getty Images
#32
I work for a retailer that sells vouchers. I can’t tell you the amount of times I have refused to sell them to an elderly person who was being threatened by the likes of “Jeff Bezos” or “Elon Musk” to do as they say. Had older ladies come in claiming they were speaking with their childhood pop star crush. Men who are being scammed by pretty women via instagram. Even young employees who fall for their ‘boss asking them to buy thousands in vouchers for an employee giveaway’. Several times a day.
Image source: TY78910, Julia Morales
#33
I know one person (self-employed professional) who was scammed by her secretary out of her practice account. It went to court. The money was all spent so no hope getting it back.
And another, a consultant doctor, who was scammed by his cleaning lady. He had recently separated acrimoniously and assumed it was his ex wife eking revenge via the joint savings. The cleaning lady got a new conservatory, and bought her son a motorbike.
Both in the tens of thousands.
Image source: SleepPrettyDarling , Getty Images
#34
Just remembered me and DH!
Many years ago when he was self employed he leased his work van. At the end of the 4 year lease he had the option to give the van back or buy it.
When he contacted them the company said they had been taken over by a large well known bank who were closing the commercial vehicle leasing part of the business so didn’t want the vans back, quoted him a good price to buy it.
We sent them a cheque, v5 arrived in DH name, all good.
Until 3 months later a bailiff turned up at our house to repossess the van for non-payment!!!!
It turned out someone had cashed our cheque, we suspected a disgruntled employee (they were all losing their jobs as a result of the takeover).
Luckily our bank sorted it and he got to keep the van!!!
Image source: FrangipaniBlue, Jacob Skowronek
#35
I fell for a Joules closing down sale and happily put £160 worth of bits in my basket , checked out and waited patiently
Week later whilst looking to see if I could track the delivery I saw the email confirmation was something like ” joules.janesmith@hotmail.com” I realised I’d been fooled , when I went into the bank to ask if I should order a new card just in case , they opened a dispute , new card on phone immediately and refunded within 24 hrs , I was really impressed and much more vigilant since .
I also have a work colleague who took 4 years and over £30,000 getting rid of her very young Tunisian husband . That’s a whole other story.
Image source: 66babe
#36
Two friends of mine were scammed:
– one got a call from someone pretending to be his bank telling him he needed to move money as his account was no longer safe. Luckily his bank refunded him the full amount.
– same friend met someone online who claimed they had financial issues, he’d send him money most days to pay for his food or some other smallish expense. It only stopped when the app he used changed the rules and he could no longer send money in the same way. He asked me to send him the money saying he’d pay me back – I refused. By the time he got to this stage a couple of grand had been sent over. Funnily enough when he couldn’t send money anymore he stopped hearing from this guy as much.
– the other friend had some guy come onto him at a bar, told him he couldn’t go back with him that night, but did want to see him again. Asked if he could put his number into my friends phone- he’d actually gone onto his banking app and sent a load of money to himself.
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#37
My intelligent dad was sending lots of money to his ‘girlfriend’ in Russia, I saw a photo of her – she was stunning, my dad isn’t ! He sent her money for a holiday and flew over to Russia for a month to see her but she got Covid so couldn’t meet him and eventually he was told she had died. It was horrific, he was traumatised as his previous (very real) partner had died very young only 2 years previously. He still cannot see he was scammed and genuinely believes she died.
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#38
My grandad got a text a couple of years ago saying he needed to log on to the NHS app and pay for his certificate to prove he had been vaccinated against covid for 99p..
He logged on and paid the 99p and had his bank cleared out at the same time.
Image source: Speckyfourfries
#39
Yes. Friends husband had a call from his bank. They old him they needed to transfer their entire business account balance due to a fraudulent transaction , only it wasn’t the bank of course. It was a lot of money and he did eventually get it all back as the bank admitted fault
I think.
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#40
Not exactly but I went to school with someone who was in the local papers for being part of a gang that conned pensioners out of their life savings through some kind of call centre scam.
I can’t imagine anyone I know would fall for a romance scam.
Image source: Probioaretheone, Keith Tanner
#41
My grandfather (in his late 70s/ 80s at the time) started “going out” with a much younger woman (30s) he met through his church. He gave her very large amounts of money, to pay for her studies, trips back to Poland to visit her family. He even ended up paying the rent on an apartment in so she could live there. They were meant to be engaged, he bought her a ring and everything and she was supposedly getting the apartment ready (had to be just right and she kept asking for money to furnish/ decorate it) so he could live there with her. It dragged out, his health took a turn for the worse and eventually I think he started to get worried about it and suspicious. It all came out. My uncle was furious. He and his wife flew over and went to the apartment to confront the woman and everything. It turned out that she had been living in the apartment with her boyfriend. There was no way of getting any of the money back of course. All in all, it was a really shocking amount. They consulted a solicitor but as he said, the money had been given willingly etc. The woman and her bf disappeared then anyway, never to be seen or heard from since. My grandfather died not too long after.
Image source: DebtinVegas
#42
Some friends of mine fell for one that was common about ten years ago when someone from ‘your bank’ would ring up with a spiel about fraudulent activity, ask for lots of info including your pin, and would then send round a motorbike courier to collect your bank card so it could not be used fraudulently anymore… Lots of urgency and pressure so they didn’t have time to think until after the motorbike roared away; by the time they called their actual bank about half an hour later, hundreds of pounds had been taken from their account.
Image source: SoloSofa24
#43
I know someone who lost £5k booking a fake holiday villa online. Don’t know if they got anything back.
This was someone with a fairly senior IT role, which goes to show its not just the technophobe grannies and grandpas that can fall victim.
Image source: CrispyCrumpets
#44
I got a ‘mum I lost my phone’ text, and was so lucky that ds and I happen to use an unusual sign-off to our texts, so i knew it wasn’t him. Wasn’t deliberate to set it up but it saved me!
Image source: PermanentTemporary
#45
My husband did recently, thankfully they didn’t get any money, but he’d been talking to actual paypal on Facebook during a time of crazy amount of stress recently, accidentally clicked someone else and carrier on the conversation and gave his bank details, as soon as he did he said outloud why did I do that and I went through the conversation, we got onto the bank straight away and cancelled that card etc, he had been saving up money to pay for the things causing us stress so it could have been a lot lot worse.
Image source: Victoriancat
#46
My dad was nearly scammed from someone pretending to be from talk talk. They were very insistent he transferred them some money via western union that day. He was going along with it and asked his neighbour to give him a lift to the post office , and the neighbour realised it was a scam.
Another friend was scammed out of 10k which was all their savings, I can’t remember exactly how, it was some scheme were they were persuaded to invest but I can’t recall how they were contacted
Image source: Fizbosshoes , Stephen Dawson
#47
Me. I fell for a romance scam off Guardian Soulmates, there’s a thread about it on here somewhere. Not huge amounts thank goodness but it was insanely stupid.
And an older relative. Followed up the classic Nigerian Prince email and was in the clutches of an increasing network of scum from all over the world until his death, for about ten years I think. He had terrible credit scores (went bankrupt in his 50s, state pension only, no assets) and we couldn’t see why they kept calling him, and then we found he was persuading acquaintances and even his partner to hand over vast sums which he sent to the scammers. He was bloody lucky he didn’t end up in jail.
Image source: PermanentTemporary
#48
Yes, a relative lost over 6 figures in a crypto scam. They had made a decent living trading until that point but I few personal stressors means they took their eye off the ball and it went…it was a quite a big scam that span numerous countries. They were contacted by the FBI but I this was a couple of years ago and so assume they never found the culprits.
Image source: CissOff
#49
Yep, my dad, just under £14k. Wouldn’t wish it on anyone to deal with
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#50
My DP was scammed out of £50k, it’s a long boring story but l said at the time please stop, it was a friend of friend so she knew the 1st person,..turns our loads of people got scammed..l kept saying you throwing good money after bad. Think can you lend me £5k will pay it back in a week with interest, just waiting for paperwork.
These people were in another country obviously no one got any money back.
Image source: Teenagerantruns , Markus Winkler
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