A recording of a call to a bank’s customer service team reveals the moment a customer was told they had almost been scammed out of £1,500.
In a recording shared by TSB, a customer rings the bank’s fraud team after trying to make a payment to someone he thought was his daughter, who had just bought a new phone…. and was asking him for money for reasons that weren’t quite obvious.
This type of message is increasingly common and new data from TSB show that scams on WhatsApp have increased by 300 per cent in a year, many pretending to be family or friends claiming they are messaging from a new phone because their old one is broken or lost.
It says in each case, there is an average loss of £1,200. Read on to find out the moment a parent realised the person asking for money wasn’t their child.
Full transcript of the call
TSB staff member: Good evening you’re through to TSB Fraud. My name’s Jade, can I take your name, please.
Customer: Yeah. Yeah, It’s Robert Mooney.
TSB staff member: And how is that [I can] help you today?
Customer: I’ve been trying to make a payment, and I’ve had a text to say… a text from yourself to say that you’d get in touch with me. And that I couldn’t make the payment. Apparently I spelt a name wrong. And that’s why it got blocked.
TSB staff member: Right. Okay, that’s fine. What we’ll do is get into your account. We’ll have a little look at the payment and see if we can get this sorted for you.
Customer: Right.
TSB staff member: Could I just take your sort code and account number of you there please?
Customer: Yeah. Yep, yep. 2 seconds. Just going to get it out of my wallet.
TSB staff member: Thank you very much. Right. So, what was the transaction that you were trying to make then?
Customer: It was for £1,500.
TSB staff member: And who was it going to?
Customer It was going to Ravindra – R A V I N D R A and the second name is… look, I’ll just spell it because pronouncing it, no. C H E B R O L U?
TSB staff member: Thank you. And is this like a friend or family member or are you buying something or…?
Customer: It’s my daughter’s… My, my daughter’s connection.
TSB staff member: It’s a what, sorry?
Customer: My daughter’s connection to somebody. I’m paying for my daughter.
TSB staff member: Right. Okay. Have you received any messages of your daughter asking you to pay and make this payment for her?
Customer: Yes.
TSB staff member: Right. Okay. In the message, did she mention anything about having problems with her phone or her internet banking?
Customer: Yeah. Yeah, she put her phone through a spin cycle. Apparently, she was washing and put it through the washing machine by mistake, and it’s ruined the SIM card and the phone. So, she’s had to buy a new phone and get a new number.
TSB staff member: Right. Okay. And have you spoken to your daughter about this verbally over the phone or in person or just over message?
Customer: Just over message.
TSB staff member: Right. Based on what you’ve said, I’m pretty confident that this is a scam. And that text message isn’t from your daughter. Are you able to contact your daughter just now just to confirm whether she sent that message or not? I don’t think she has.
Customer: Okay. Okay. Hang on a minute. I’m not quite sure. Let me just see if I can place another call.
TSB staff member: Yeah, not a problem.
Customer: Let’s see… add a call. Oh, hang on a minute.
TSB staff member: Do you have another phone that you could contact her on?
Customer: Yes, we do, yeah.
TSB staff member: It might be easier for you to call her on a separate phone just to get her to confirm, you know? “Oh, did you send me a text message earlier?” Make sure you call her on her old original number as well. Not the new one that she gave you.
Customer: Okay. And then just bear with me again.
TSB staff member: Yeah, no problem.
Customer: If that phone then doesn’t work. Well, we’ll try on here, first of all.
TSB customer service staff: I am pretty certain it’s a scam, but obviously, before we raise any fraud cases or anything, I just want to double check.
Customer: Yeah, Yeah. Okay. You want to ring her old number? Oh, she gave me some information that would suggest it’s right, but we’ll just defer to that for a minute or so.
TSB customer service staff: Yeah.
Customer’s wife calling their daughter: Hi, Sam.
Customer’s daughter: Hello.
Customer’s wife: You all right?
Customer’s daughter: Yeah. You?
Customer’s wife: Yeah, have you asked Dad about paying you some money?
Customer’s daughter: No, why?
Customer: Wow! You were right!
TSB staff member: Unfortunately, it is a really common scam at the moment. What we’re going to need to do is get a fraud case raised for you. Is that okay?
Customer: Yes, please.
TSB staff member: Okay. Right. So just bear with me a second.
Customer’s wife He had a text on the phone saying your phone was broken, that there was some… Some backwards and forwards about getting it paid. Luckily TSB put a stop on the payment. He’s actually on the phone to TSB at the moment and the girl said there are a lot of scams like this so to try your old number. Because apparently the scam said that you’d put your phone in the washing machine.
TSB staff member: Just filling out the information on your fraud case for you. Just a moment.
Customer: Okay.
Customer’s Wife: So you’ve definitely still got that number. It still exists, and you’re not after dosh from Dad?
Customer’s daughter: I mean, I’ll happily take the money from him!
Customer’s wife: (Laughs) I’ll bet you would!
Customer: Oh, I’m so pleased you insisted on making that call.
TSB staff member: Yeah, unfortunately, such a common scam at the moment. And unfortunately, a lot of people do fall for it, you know? And it’s just, it’s just a shame, you know? Well, at least the fact that you’ve checked now, and you are confident, obviously, that it wasn’t genuine. And this £1,500 is it the only payment that you’ve tried to make today?
Customer: Yeah.
TSB staff member: To this sort code and account number?
Customer: Yes, it is.
TSB staff member: Right. Okay. And I can see the £1,500 has come into your account. Is that your partner?
Customer: Yeah, that’s my wife. Yes.
TSB staff member: Right. Has she sent it to you for you to then send to your daughter. Or supposedly your daughter?
Customer: Yes. That was the way it was going to work.
TSB staff member: Right. Okay, that’s fine. What I’ll do, I’ll not touch that payment. So, If you want to send that back to your wife, obviously, I’ll leave that for you guys to sort out. Obviously as long as your both okay with that. And so I’ll not bother with that. The £1,500 that you tried to send to your daughter – thankfully, that payment hasn’t gone through. So this is a non loss fraud case.
Customer: Right.
You can listen to the full call (with an actor playing the part of the customer) here.
