Scam: woman ‘felt sick’ after losing £20k to scammers when she replied to fake TV licence email

• Felicity Campbell responded to a fake TV licensing email. 
• She then received a call from a man claiming to be from her bank. 
• He ‘groomed’ her and persuaded her to transfer thousands of pounds.

A woman ‘felt sick’ after losing £20,000 in an elaborate scam which started with a fake TV licence email. The victim was deceived into paying thousands of pounds to fraudsters pretending to be from her bank. 

The ordeal for Felicity Campbell, from Bleasby in Nottinghamshire, began when she replied to what she thought was an email from TV Licensing. She entered her credit card details but quickly realised her mistake and contacted her bank after clocking that it was a phishing scam, the BBC reports. 

Unfortunately for Mrs Campbell, this was only the beginning. Five days later she received a call from a man who claimed to be from her bank and things only got worse. 

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‘This is Nationwide calling’ 

Woman lost £20k in a sophisticated scam. (Picture: stock.adobe.com) | stock.adobe.com

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours, she shared what happened next. She explained: “The man on the other end of the line said, 'this is the Nationwide calling. Did you respond to a phishing email from TV Licensing?” 

Mrs Campbell said the man on the phone asked if she had made a payment of £1,500 to Western Union. He claimed that her account “has been compromised” and was able to correctly tell her details such as recent transactions and her address. 

Talking to Radio 4, she explained that he then rang back by WhatsApp and asked if she was happy to continue. She added: “Reluctantly, feeling a little sick, I have to say, because I wasn't absolutely sure, but I said OK. He then instructed me to press a few buttons on my phone."

The man claimed that this was so he could “guide” her through the actions she needed to make her accounts safe. It led to her sharing her screen via the WhatsApp call, which allowed the man to see what was on her phone including her other banking apps Lloyds and Wise - which specialises in international cash transfers. 

Victim convinced to take out huge loan 

Mrs Campbell told You and Yours that over the next 90 minutes the man encouraged her to shuffle different sums of money between her accounts. And at one point he persuaded her to take out a £25,000 loan to “block” another that he claimed had been taken out. 

She explained: "If that one instruction had come in isolation, I would have said… 'what planet do you think I live on?' But because I'd been groomed and everything was making me feel more and more fearful and more and more insecure, you get swept along by the scammers insistence of acting now."

After the loan landed in her account, he encouraged her to make further transfers at which point she decided enough was enough. But unfortunately £20,000 had already been transferred out to Western Union accounts in India. 

BBC reports that Nationwide refunded her £6,000 while Lloyds have returned £2,000 and Wise has refunded half of the transactions - amounting to around £6,000. 

Are you growing concerned about scams, should more be done? Share your thoughts by emailing me: [email protected].