The elderly man received a call he thought was from BT
A RETIRED Derrylin pensioner has had a lucky escape as he was almost conned out of over £6,000.
The man in his mid 60’s, was experiencing problems with his BT Internet, when he received a call from a man claiming to be from BT. After giving his bank details out over the phone, the man contacted his bank, who confirmed he was being scammed and luckily were able to block the transactions.
“The man claimed that he was from BT and that there was a problem with our phone line. I was on the phone for over a hour and a half, and I was also introduced to his line manager, who said that BT had been subject to a cyber attack. He said it would take 20 minutes for the computer to reboot, and that I just had to give them my account details.”
Convinced he was talking to BT, the Derrylin man handed over his bank details.
“Whoever had rang me had already transferred money to a savings account but the bank was able to stop the money being removed. If I had not have contacted the bank, my account would have been cleaned out. He had taken £3,800 firstly, and was trying to withdraw £2,600.”
The pensioner now wants to raise awareness of this kind of crime, in the hope of alerting other people to similar scams.
“People need to be aware that this is a common scam. I thought I would not be caught, but he was very convincing. I should have known that a reputable company would not ask for card details over the phone.”
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