Oh, Fer Gawd’s Sake!

Some people really are their own worst enemies.

One reader, Kevin, contacted me about a scam he was taken in by. In June, he got an email from [email protected].

It told him that special loans, heavily subsidised by Government, were available for those struggling ­during the pandemic.

The loan was likened to the Government’s business bounceback and other schemes and the email said it had been put in place by Chancellor Rushi Sunak.

Okay, and Kevin didn’t see any of the red flags at this point. An unsolicited email from what is obviously not a government domain.

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt here as some people might have found it convincing. I’d have binned it as an obvious scam, but not everyone is able to spot them from the off.

All you had to do was click a link and fill in an online form to claim it.

Okay, that’s a red flag accompanied by klaxons. You never, never, never click on links in unsolicited emails. Never. If this was a genuine email from HMG, they would advise you to go to their website and log into your Government Gateway account. This is not some hidden knowledge, they are open about it and warnings are given out on a regular basis from government agencies along the lines of we don’t email you offering or asking for money and we don’t put links for you to click in our emails. When I was told about the help I could get for being self-employed, that was precisely how they did it: An email from HMRC telling me to log into my account.

Where has Kevin been all this time?

Kevin, from Basingstoke, in Hampshire, did just that, giving his full name, ­address, employment status and contact details.

Faceplam.

You know if I did that, I wouldn’t be telling a national newspaper about it, I’d be hiding away in shame.

The other day I received a text supposedly from my mobile carrier telling me that they had problems processing my bill. It did not come from the official account, which their texts always do and the bill had already been paid. It was an obvious scam, even though it was carefully crafted. Enough for me to look twice at it. I logged into my account, confirmed that the bill had been paid and told my sister who was with me at the time, that, yes, it was a scam. She gets these fairly regularly and like me can spot ’em a mile off.

Still, back to Kevin, because there’s more. Oh, yes, there’s more…

Two days later, he got a call from a man who called himself Frank Cartwright at Covid-19 loans.

He said Kevin could get up to £35,000 but first he needed to email his last three months’ bank statements and a copy of a utility bill and driver’s licence.

He also had to transfer £299, which was the admin fee.

Jesus! Those red flags and klaxons should be dancing about in a frenzy by now. They want personal information, which you absolutely give to some random stranger who emailed you and… A processing fee. Has this person never received an email from a Nigerian general? If all the other warning signs had been missed up to this point, here was the final warning that this was a scam and it wasn’t even particularly hard to spot. As soon as they ask for money, hang up.

But what did Kevin do?

It sounded so convincing – and Kevin was also told there would be no ­repayments for one year and the interest rate was only two per cent over a five-year term.

Sounded convincing? What? Really?

So Kevin sent them what they asked for with predictable results. He lost his money and had his identity stolen.

In Kevin’s own words he ­“complied with the requirements without hesitation”, as the deal was so good.

No, Kevin, because you are an idiot. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. You have to be pretty dense to fall for something as transparent as this, that was blindingly obvious from the initial email.

The penny dropped and he ­realised he had been conned and had lost his £299. But last week he felt the fraudster’s full force, as they also obtained credit in his name, using his bank statements and identification.

Well, at least it dropped I suppose, but let’s be clear here, despite the scammers being low-life scum, Kevin was terminally stupid and brought his woes upon himself.

I have advised Kevin to ask his bank to refund the £299, which they should do because the transfer was sent to a fraudster.

I have also told him to write to the credit reference agencies to tell them the credit taken out in his name are fraudulent loans.

Okay, now I’m annoyed. Why should the bank foot the bill for their customer being too stupid to spot an obvious scam? Had they done anything wrong here? No. Were they in any way complicit in the fraud? I would call it a stupidity tax and tell him not to be such a jerk in future and take it as a life lesson.

The second bit of advice stands of course. Untangling himself from that mess will take some doing, but this was entirely his fault. Scammers are out there and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated, but this one wasn’t by any means. He should have spotted it when he looked at that first email.

I have no sympathy here and I don’t think the bank should pay him the £299.