An 82 year old had all her money taken when she applied for loans to help her with rent and bills.
American media are today reporting that Betty Alford, of Fresno in California applied for 3 loans over a period of months to help her with the rising cost of living, which is affecting people across the globe as well as here in the UK.
She told interviewers she had applied for 3 loans in all and nothing had appeared untoward.
During the online loan application, Alford said she submitted her account and routing number as she had in previous application processes.
This is how the scammers learned which bank she was connected with.
Someone then called Alford claiming to be a bank representative, telling her she qualified for a $6,000 loan.
She says they followed up with a few questions to verify information and told her to repeat back a 1-time text code they had sent her, which had in fact been sent by the real bank’s automated system.
The scammers, armed with her account number and verification code got in and locked her out of her own account by changing passwords.
Unfortunately, this kind of scam is all too easy to perpetrate and often hard to spot.
When logging on, always go to the website or app – don’t click through on an email sent randomly to you, or least without verifying the sender first.
Don’t give out your details over the phone – banks will not ask for Pin numbers or verification codes verbally.
Anything suspicious – hang up and call your bank on a verifiable number. Do not call back the number you have been called on, or ask them for their number. A clever scammer will already have a system setup to direct you back into the scam.
The full story aired on Fox26 and can be seen here
82-year-old grandma’s bank account wiped out, left with a negative balance after loan scam (msn.com)