A GOUROCK woman has told how she was scammed out of £20,000 by cruel fraudsters.
The woman, who has asked not to be identified, says she has been left devastated by the authorised push payment scam, where a person unwittingly transfers money from their own bank account to a scammer's.
She is now warning people not to trust any text messages or phone calls, even if they appear to be from your bank.
The woman said: "I was scammed out of £20,000. It was gone in an instant.
"There was some protection form my bank and I got some of the money refunded, but overall I am £11,000 out of pocket that I'll never get that back.
"It's had a huge impact on me, not just financially. but psychologically.
"I feel embarrassed about it as I never thought something like this could happen to me."
The victim's ordeal started when she received a text purporting to be from the Bank of Scotland, stating that £1,500 had come out of her account for an Airbnb she hadn't booked.
She said: "I was on my way back from holiday when I received this text message which was just like a Bank of Scotland official correspondence. It said that £1,500 had been taken from my account for an Airbnb and that if this wasn't right then I was to phone them.
"The woman I spoke to on the phone had perfect English and said that there had been a another three payments authorised to come off my account.
"It got me into a panic.
"She did the whole security check thing so there was no reason to believe it was a scam.
"I checked my bank a few hours later and £20,000 was gone. I couldn't believe it."
Fraudsters stole £616m from UK bank customers during the first six months of 2019, according to the banking group UK Finance.
Of this total, £207m was lost to bank transfer scams – up 40 per cent on the same period in 2018.
The woman is now warning people to be vigilant against the bank transfer scam.
She added: "I just want to warn as many people as I can about this.
"I don't want it to happen to anybody else."
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