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Rip off Britain Season 17 Episode 27
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00:00Today, how AI fakes convinced one woman she had found the love of her life.
00:06I wanted her to come here and buy a boat and sail around the world.
00:10I can't tell you how much I wanted it, but it never happened.
00:14Plus, could you convince someone that they're being scammed?
00:17Well, we meet the experts who get paid to do just that.
00:21It's really important that you're honest with us today,
00:23because I need you to make sure that you're not falling victim to a scam.
00:27Keeping you one step ahead of the scammers, this is Rip Off Britain.
00:40Hello and welcome to Rip Off Britain on BBC Scam Safe Week.
00:43Here from our HQ in Salford to supply you with all the advice you need to keep your money safe
00:49in a world fraught with fraudsters.
00:52Now today, takedown, turndown.
00:55The media giants failing to remove scam investment schemes that proliferate on their
01:00sites, leaving users at risk of losing literally thousands of pounds.
01:04You would think for all of the technical capabilities that big tech has,
01:08they could do the proactive stuff as well, but I see very little evidence of it.
01:12We all have the pointers you need to make sure that you steer well clear.
01:17And in our clinic, how one woman's love of crochet like this, very talented. Look at that, isn't it?
01:24Led her into a whole other type of entanglement. When she tried to sell her products online,
01:30she was duped into handing over her bank details and hundreds of pounds to a scammer. We'll have
01:36top-notch advice on how to handle that one.
01:38But first, we're turning to the language of love, something I'm sure you all are very well versed in.
01:45Well, if there's one group of people who are truly expert at penning heartfelt messages,
01:50it's those low-life romance scammers. And I'm sad to say this horrible type of scam,
01:56which comes all wrapped up in a beautiful romantic bow, is catching out more people than ever.
02:02It's truly awful. Last year, nearly £100 million was lost to romance fraud, according to Action
02:09Fraud. And the dark art of targeting those looking for love is reaching new lows, as the con artists
02:15harness artificial intelligence to make their romantic advances even more realistic. And it's
02:22made even worse by just how much of the world of dating is now done online.
02:27Now, shortly, we're going to talk to one expert who unpicks the methods on these types of scams,
02:33and advises on how to guard against them. But first, we're going to hear from former university
02:38lecturer, Nicola McLeod. This time last year, she was listening to Radio Scotland during BBC's
02:43Scam Safe Week, and she felt absolutely compelled to get in touch and share her own experience.
02:49And we've now picked up the case on the programme.
02:55Nicola McLeod from Edinburgh has endured a tough few years. After the death of her parents,
03:01and the ending of a long-term relationship, she sought comfort online.
03:06I was really, really at rock bottom. And I started just chatting away to people on the internet,
03:10because I was getting very, very lonely. And I was using Facebook chat rooms.
03:14Nicola McLeod says the chat rooms really helped. And by the summer of 2024,
03:20she was feeling far more optimistic, not least because someone online had caught her eye.
03:25Nicola McLeod
03:26She was obviously a sailor. She was wearing a beanie and a big jacket.
03:30Just a little tiny avatar picture as you get on Facebook. And I thought,
03:33oh, she looks really attractive. And I just wanted to talk to this woman and find out who she was.
03:38Nicola McLeod
03:39She was called Ala. And within days of Nicci dropping her a message, a connection started to form.
03:45Nicola McLeod
03:45We just started blethering to each other. What we were doing today, what you had for tea,
03:51this kind of everyday conversation you'd have with somebody you know really well.
03:54Nicola McLeod
03:55We got to know each other more and more. And she started being really sympathetic.
04:00Nicola McLeod
04:01The pair chatted every day, exchanging hundreds of messages. And they bonded over a joint love of the sea.
04:08Nicola McLeod
04:08She knew I liked to go out sailing. And she said, yeah, I'm a sailor. Let's buy a yacht. Let's sail around
04:13the world. Let's just do that. And it just sounded so fantastic.
04:18Nicola McLeod
04:19In fact, Ala spent most of her days at sea.
04:22Nicola McLeod
04:23She told Nicci she was an engineer on an oil rig, and that to stay in touch,
04:27she needed to buy digital gift cards to pay for an internet connection. Initially,
04:33Nicci was sceptical. But Ala convinced her that their future relationship depended on a
04:38ready supply of codes from the cards to stay in touch. Nicci spent hundreds of pounds on them.
04:46But Ala's constant demands for more and more cards started to unsettle Nicci.
04:51So she voiced her concerns.
04:53I started questioning her identity. And she said, no, it's really real. And then,
05:00because I was getting so sceptical, she sent me a video.
05:03Well, Nicci, it's Ala Morgan. I wanted to reach out to reassure you that I am sincere and have no
05:10connection to any scams. Your trust means a lot to me.
05:14With that, Nicci's creeping doubts vanished. The couple continued to chat, with Nicci sharing details
05:21of her family life and hobbies. Ala told Nicci about her well-paid engineering career,
05:26and they started to make plans for the future. As the bonds seemed to get stronger and stronger,
05:32Ala suggested they meet up in Edinburgh.
05:35I was so excited. She said she was absolutely head over heels in love with me.
05:40I was in love with her. I mean, it was that simple.
05:42But the visit would come at a cost. Ala said her employer would need Nicci to stump up US$2,500,
05:54around £1,900, to pay for a helicopter to bring her from the oil rig to Edinburgh.
06:01She said, don't worry about it. I'm so rich. I'm getting one and a half million dollars for this
06:07contract and I'll pay it all back. So just give them the two and a half thousand. So I did.
06:12But that was followed by another request for money, this time for almost £10,000,
06:19supposedly to compensate for Ala's leave.
06:22I didn't pay that because it made me very, very suspicious. And I thought, I just don't trust this at all.
06:30But just like last time, as soon as Nicci raised her suspicions, Ala sent another video.
06:37Good morning, Nicci. I hope you had a wonderful night. I want to prove myself to you and hope this
06:41video proves you wrong with all the negative thoughts. You can see it's very storming weather outside.
06:50But when it finally came to meeting, she never turned up at Edinburgh airport. And I filled the
06:56house with fouls because they thought she was going to turn up the next day.
06:59Nicci was upset, but the pair reconciled and continued to exchange messages. And while Nicci
07:06was now on her guard, Ala reassured her that she was absolutely committed to their relationship.
07:12It got round to the fact that my daughter was desperate to find somewhere else to live in Aberdeen.
07:17And Ala promised she would just buy my daughter a house. It was very,
07:22very generous, which is why I asked her if she really meant it, because it was so generous.
07:27She said, I love you so much. I'm just going to give you this money.
07:31Nicci and her daughter set about finding a suitable property, settling on a one bed flat,
07:36costing £65,000. To get the ball rolling on the purchase, Ala provided Nicci with login details
07:44for what she said was her online bank account with a company called Terafin Capital. And when Nicci
07:51checked the account, everything seemed to add up. Lo and behold, there was one and a half
07:56million dollars in her bank account. So I happily transferred £65,000 to my bank account.
08:02But Ala's bank blocked the transaction.
08:09Almost instantly, Nicci received an email saying the account had been frozen and releasing the money
08:15would require a payment of £8,500. Baffled, Nicci messaged Ala, who was as reassuring as ever.
08:24Ala said, why don't you just pay them? And then I'll give you the money back.
08:28So, Nicci did just that, using her bank and PayPal accounts to pay the fee to Ala's bank
08:35in instalments of around £1,500 at a time. But when Nicci's bank blocked one of those transfers,
08:43she picked up the phone to find out why.
08:45The bank said, what's that bank called? Oh, we know about that bank. It's not a real bank.
08:53And that person is not a real person. You've been scammed.
08:59The online bank account Nicci had viewed had been faked and the £1.5 million she'd seen didn't really
09:07exist. Now, Nicci knew that everything Ala had told her had been a lie.
09:14I didn't want to believe it at all. I wanted it all to be real. I was really involved with this
09:20person. I wanted her to come here and buy a boat and sail around the world. I can't tell you how
09:26much I wanted it, but it never happened.
09:34Nicci believes she spent around £20,000 on Ala, though can't be completely sure. Some of her losses
09:40were reimbursed by her bank, but the lion's share of the payments came from her PayPal account.
09:47PayPal refunded around £6,000 through its buyer protection policy, but roughly £11,000 was
09:54transferred using the platform's friends and family function, which comes with no such protection.
10:01But for Nicci, the biggest loss was emotional.
10:04I feel really stupid. Completely stupid. She was one of my best pals for a while.
10:10And you know, ironically now, it's like something has kind of disappeared from my life.
10:16But I'm getting over it.
10:17Something has indeed disappeared from Nicci's life because Ala wasn't just words in a text message
10:24or photos sent via Facebook. As far as Nicci knew, this living, breathing, speaking person was Ala.
10:32But she wasn't Ala at all. In fact, her real name is Sophie Bavier. And the woman who uncovered her true
10:41identity, romance fraud expert, Anna Rowe, joins me now in HQ, along with fraud lawyer,
10:48Aaron Chohan, to unravel more truths about how the scam unfolded.
10:55This is a really extraordinary and upsetting story, actually. Anna, you, I know, have been working
11:01with Nicci on uncovering the truth about her romance fraudster. So how did you get involved,
11:06find out what was going on? I started helping victims of romance fraud back in 2017. I'd seen
11:13Nicci's story on other platforms, and I actually recognised Sophie's face. So Sophie is the real
11:19person behind the pictures of Ala Morgan. Sophie is used particularly for her profession. So she is
11:27a sailor. She does work on the seas. And one of the top professions that these particular fraudsters
11:33like to use is an oil rig worker scam. So Sophie's pictures fit very, very well with that.
11:39So what they've done essentially, you're going to have to explain it to me, is they've taken those
11:43videos that Sophie has put out, and then they have manipulated them. So let's play the video that
11:48Nicci was sent. Good morning, Nicci. I hope you had a wonderful night. You know the reason of sending
11:53you this video to you? Because I want to prove myself to you and hope this video proves you wrong with
11:58all the negative thoughts. I find that really convincing. How would anybody know that wasn't
12:03for real? It's incredibly difficult. The only part of that video that's been manipulated with the AI
12:09is the mouth movements. So this is software where they would upload the saved video, and they can
12:15choose a voice, and then they type what they want that voice to say. And then the AI manipulates, it lip
12:21syncs the lips to the movements of the speech that they want it to say. So what I want to do now is play
12:27the real video, and she says something completely different. So let's play that.
12:33It's been a while. We haven't done any live here. So we're back. And in the bridge.
12:40It's really hard to tell the difference, isn't it? Really difficult.
12:43Isn't it? And what strikes me about all of this is that the effect of it on anybody who's been
12:50affected by this kind of scan is devastating, isn't it?
12:53It really is. I mean, we describe it as a triple trauma. So the victim who, to all intents and
12:59purposes, has been in a real relationship, even though it was manufactured for the purpose of
13:05fraud. So they are really intense relationships. So the first trauma is that that relationship has
13:12suddenly ended, and it leaves a really huge void. The second trauma is that that character that they
13:19thought they were in love with and that loved them didn't actually exist at all. And then,
13:23of course, the third trauma is the financial loss, which can leave people devastated for years as well.
13:30And there's a particularly cruel element to the financial side of things here too.
13:36If Nikki had been duped into transferring the money from the bank, chances are she would have been
13:41reimbursed. But most of it was sent via PayPal using its friends and family function, which comes
13:48with no such protection. Where do you stand, Aaron?
13:52PayPal have two options. They have this kind of friends and family option, or paying for goods and
13:57services. These payees are set up as friends and family. So if you're tricked to pay these people,
14:02gosh, unfortunately, PayPal's resolution centre says we're not going to cover you for reimbursement.
14:08So unfortunately, not the same protections as you'd expect from maybe your larger retail banks.
14:14PayPal has told us it's sorry to hear about what had happened to Nikki,
14:17advises customers to be wary of unusual payment requests, particularly if it targets your emotions
14:23and is moving large amounts of money, even when the request appears to come from someone you know.
14:27Aaron, the other big player in all of this is Facebook, isn't it? Where so-called
14:32Allah targeted Nikki in the first place. We shared the details of this case with Meta,
14:37its parent company, and it told us there are tips on how to avoid romance scams on its website.
14:41That advice includes beware of unsolicited messages, verify unfamiliar accounts by checking
14:47when the account was created, or for example, doing a reverse image search on the photos to check
14:52their authenticity. Do you think that Facebook has any responsibilities here?
14:56Yeah, I do think all social media platforms, Facebook included, do have a responsibility.
15:00Just having messages like they've said there about verification and so on, it's not enough.
15:06They have to act themselves and remove this content. Otherwise, it's going to continue
15:10to be a large part of the problem many victims are facing.
15:13Anna, you speak to lots of victims like Nikki regularly. What's your advice for people who
15:18want to meet someone online?
15:19So it's really important to remember firstly that anyone can be a victim.
15:23It's not, this will never happen to me. These particular fraudsters do have very particular
15:29professions that they stick to because they know they work. Military and offshore workers,
15:34oil rig like this, very, very, very popular. They will always say that they're going off to work
15:40abroad or they are already working abroad. That's how they create a problem. They will very often try
15:46to get you off of the platform that they meet you on really quickly, normally within about 48 hours.
15:52That's because algorithms can pick up what they know is the chat that's going on.
15:57And the other thing to do, get someone to look over things with you. Check it out from
16:01a cold view perspective.
16:03So it's literally going back to the old adage of head over heart, if you possibly can.
16:08It is. And if we can all keep that in mind every time we make new connections online. And we do make
16:13connections online. And it's a good thing in its truest form that we've got to be wary of what we're
16:20looking for out there.
16:20My gosh, thank you both very much indeed. And thanks again to Nikki as well. And later on in
16:25the program, we're going to be switching our attention from the victims of romance scammers to
16:28those trying to stop them in their tracks with an insight into a team at one bank that has been dubbed the
16:34Break the Spell team. We'll also be joined by the BBC's own scam interceptor, Nick Stapleton,
16:40to ask him whether that sort of initiative from the banks will really make a difference. Thank you both.
16:51Time now for our advice clinic. And in the expert hot seat today is tech specialist David McClellan.
16:57And we're also joined by Annette Durden from Oxfordshire, an avid crocheter who was targeted
17:03by scammers when trying to sell some of her beautiful creations on Etsy.
17:09And we've got an example of it here. Annette, tell me, I'm somebody who's never mastered the art of
17:14crocheting. Tell me how you got into it. Well, my brother taught me to knit when I was about five.
17:20So about six years ago, I had some lessons and I've never looked back. I haven't picked up a pair of
17:26little needles since. With more crocheted creations than she could give away,
17:31Annette decided to try and sell some, so set up a store on Etsy.
17:36And I gather the trouble began when you got a message supposedly from Etsy about your account.
17:42The message said that in order to get hold of the money she'd made selling her crochet,
17:47Annette needed to set up a new bank account.
17:50They said they don't deal with the bank that I was with. So they wanted me to open an account with
17:57Revolut. And they asked for my bank balance. I told them £238.70. And they said, well,
18:05put that into the account and you'll get it refunded straight away.
18:09Annette had fallen for a scammer who was pretending to be from Etsy.
18:21That official looking message convinced her to set up a new Revolut account and share her virtual
18:29card details. The scammer told her this was to verify her Etsy account,
18:34but instead it simply enabled them to withdraw her cash.
18:39The whole saga is obviously horrible. David, what's your take on it?
18:44Well, like you say, it's an awful saga and sadly not an isolated incident either. Annette,
18:50you've been very good at providing us with some screenshots that might just paint a bit of a
18:55picture here. You were initially approached by someone claiming to be from support and then
19:00they sent you through to another website and it's asking you about transferring balances and so
19:06on. A red flag here for me, unfortunately, is the web address that they've sent Annette to. We would
19:13expect that to be from an Etsy.com domain, an Etsy.com web address. It's the scammer's web address and
19:22well, we know what happens next. Well, Annette, actually we did contact Etsy and make them aware
19:28of your situation and this is what they told us, that it takes the safety and security of its
19:33community extremely seriously and has expert teams in place that work constantly to combat fraudulent
19:40activity on its marketplace. It said addressing this kind of scam is a top priority and will
19:46continue to invest in solutions and work with sellers. Well, David, Etsy isn't the only platform
19:52that we've heard about where this sort of thing is happening, where fraudsters pose as, quote,
19:57customer service representatives. So is there any advice you can give people so they can detect
20:02whether or not they really are talking to the genuine company? Yes, these fake customer support
20:07or service support accounts are unfortunately rife across a number of platforms here. Now, on Etsy,
20:14it does say that messages from Etsy appear in a special from Etsy inbox and are very clearly badged
20:21with from Etsy and other platforms may have similar badges too. The big red flag for me though,
20:27whatever platform, whatever message, is if you're asked to set up a bank account and asked to transfer
20:33money into it to, you know, prove you are who you say you are or whatever excuse they give you,
20:38never, never do that because it's always going to be fake. Annette, you also got in touch
20:43with Revolut, didn't you? What did they have to say to you? They said because I confirmed the transaction,
20:50they couldn't do anything about it. They couldn't refund. Well, Annette, we also contacted Revolut
20:56on your behalf and it told us this. It works hard and invests heavily to protect and support customers
21:03and in 2024 it prevented £632 million of potential fraud against its customers. It also added that it
21:11believed scams like this need to be tackled at source by online marketplaces, but it did say it
21:18was very sorry to hear about this case and knowing the impact scams like these can have, it has issued
21:23a goodwill payment of £238.70, which I believe, Annette, is the original amount. Has that in any way
21:31compensated for all the stress and hardship that you went through? I watched scams in the sectors,
21:37I watched rip-off Britain. I never thought for one minute that I would fall for a scam like this,
21:43but you know, it happened. This made me very nervous. I'm so sorry to hear that and I think
21:48that's a very common response actually to being scammed. I'm very glad it hasn't made you stop
21:53crocheting and thank you so much for telling us your story and we will be returning this to you,
22:01even though I want to keep it and I know David's got his eyes on it, but it will be returned to you.
22:06Thank you so much, Annette.
22:14Well, if you've been scammed and need advice on how to get the whole thing sorted, you can
22:19email us just like Annette did ripoffbritain at bbc.co.uk. If we can help, we will. You bet we
22:25will. Or if you prefer, you can get in touch via our Facebook page. All you have to do is to search
22:30for BBC Ripoff Britain or you can send a message on WhatsApp and the number is 033 0678 1321. Or if
22:40you're a paper person, please do write to us. We are Ripoff Britain, BBC Media City UK, Salford, M52LH.
22:49And now back to scams. And we're turning our gaze to some of the biggest companies in the world,
22:55the online tech giants. After all, it's on their platforms that millions of people fall victim to
23:02all manner of frauds. And despite efforts by authorities around the world to hold their feet
23:07to the fire, it often feels that we're in a losing battle trying to get them to do more to kick the
23:13fraudsters off their sights. And one type of fraud is having a field day, get-rich-quick schemes
23:19presented as sure-fire investments. Whether it's recommended by a friend or so-called Finfluencers,
23:26more on them shortly, they can appear very convincing. But as the person in this next film found out,
23:32they can land you not only seriously out of pocket, but even accused of fraud yourself.
23:37Hi, my name is Farhan, I'm 20 years old, and I'm making a video today about the dangers of online investing.
23:50In April 2023, a story on Instagram caught the eye of Appendous engineer Farhan Wasim. It suggested that
23:57he could make a £10,000 return with an investment of just £800. And for him…
24:04I'm a very sporty car. I'm in love. The prospect of that sort of money was hard to resist.
24:09A lot of my friends, they've got new cars, they're doing their own thing. They're not
24:13dependent on their families and their parents like I am. It does make me feel like I'm being a bit left
24:18out. The post came from an account by the name of Coach Shalax, a self-styled financial guru,
24:26offering training in investment schemes. In recent years, platforms, including Instagram,
24:31have become a haven for social media personalities, offering money tips and tricks aimed at a younger
24:38audience. There's even a name for these financial influencers who become known as Finfluencers.
24:44Farhan got in touch with Shalax. I go, I've seen your post on Instagram,
24:49I'd like to learn a little bit more. She said, I've made millions from this,
24:54and it involves Bitcoin mining, and it only takes a few hours.
24:57Farhan was quickly drawn into an elaborate series of transactions that involved him buying Bitcoin
25:04online and being loaned money by Shalax to acquire even more. And after just a few days,
25:11and less than a thousand pounds of his money going in, Shalax told him his balance stood at more than
25:1610,000 pounds. That sort of money, it would have, I can say it would have changed our lives.
25:23But to get hold of it, Shalax told Farhan he'd have to put in more. To pay for it,
25:29she said she'd lend him a total of 1,200 pounds and told him to buy Bitcoin with it, which he did.
25:36But then Shalax went quiet.
25:42And a few days later, Farhan got a letter from his bank.
25:45It says, we've frozen your account while we review recent activity. That's when then I started to
25:52panic a little bit. Then two months later, both his banks closed his accounts for good.
25:58As far as I was aware, I hadn't done anything wrong, and I couldn't comprehend why it was happening to me.
26:02In search of answers, Farhan checked his details on the national fraud database, CIFAS.
26:09It all came crashing down when I opened that document. I saw it filed in June under misuse of
26:17facility, a third-party fraud facilitator filed by my main bank.
26:23The banks accused Farhan of being a money mule. It seemed he'd unwittingly been laundering dirty cash.
26:31I'm still scared that the police are going to one day turn up on my door. And I'm facing this
26:36issue where at the start of my life, I cannot get any credit or anything at all.
26:43And I've been labeled a fraud facilitator through no fault of my own.
26:49Since this film was first broadcast, Farhan has appealed his bank's decision to put a fraud
26:54marker on his account, but says it's sticking by its decision, meaning he's still stuck in financial
27:00limbo. At the same time, concerns have been growing about the activities of people like
27:06Shailax, illegal Finfluencers, using social media platforms to promote get-rich-quick schemes.
27:13Well, joining me in HQ now to lift the lid on what's being called an international crackdown
27:18on that activity is tech expert David McClelland and fraud lawyer Aaron Shohan.
27:25Aaron, I'm coming to you first. Finfluencers, where did that spring from?
27:29It's a relatively new phrase, but what we're talking about here is that you've got these
27:32individuals who are on social media platforms selling what looks like legitimate financial
27:39advice. What we're seeing more of is that these Finfluencers are selling an education program
27:44which will lead to unique opportunities for those individuals who go on the course and pay the fees
27:49to make themselves wealthier. But it's all smoke and dust. It doesn't exist and that's how they're
27:54getting about it. So David, in a way, is there motivation like selling the dream? Is that it?
27:59That's absolutely part of the motivation. I just want to make it very clear that not all Finfluencers
28:04are fraudsters. There are a lot of great, completely legitimate Finfluencers out there who play a
28:10really important part in financial literacy and education using social media as that platform.
28:15However, as with all walks of life, there is a subset who see an opportunity to make some money.
28:20And they're capitalizing on social media's speed. Anyone can sell themselves as an expert,
28:26flying in the face of the regulations that would stop them doing the same thing on the high street.
28:30The legitimate independent financial advisors, they've gone through exams, they're regulated with
28:36the Financial Conduct Authority. But what we're seeing now is people are learning about financial
28:42investments, pensions, everything really around finance, through short bite-sized videos rather than
28:47longer articles, longer programs or training. And that's where the criminals have seen the gap.
28:53And that's where we're seeing more and more of these scams.
28:55To combat illegal Finfluencers pushing scam investments, in June 2025, Regulator of the Financial
29:03Conduct Authority, along with counterpart organizations in five other countries, launched a crackdown.
29:09In the UK, that led to criminal proceedings against three individuals and 650 takedown requests against
29:17social media platforms carrying unauthorized Finfluencers content.
29:23Facebook and other social media platforms have a responsibility under our old friends the Online
29:28Safety Act to take down this type of content. Fraudsters, they embark in practices known as
29:35lifeboating or phoenixing. That's another way of putting it. So that when a company or an online
29:41profile gets shut down, you could very quickly create a dozen more with an identical profile photo and
29:47you know, maybe very, very similar names. And there's nothing to stop you from doing that. And for me,
29:53this is the proactive as well as reactive. They aren't even doing the reactive thing yet. And you would
29:57think for all of the technical capabilities that big tech has, they could do the proactive stuff as well.
30:03But I see very little evidence of it. We put those points to Facebook's owner
30:07Meta, but it didn't respond. The FCA says people should check its online warning list
30:13before making any investments. And Aaron says there are other ways that we can all avoid scams.
30:19So what is your advice, Aaron? Well, I think firstly, stand back and look at the content you're
30:24engaging with, you need to understand it. So what are they selling? Can you get behind the person who's
30:29saying, can you see that they are on the FCA register and go on the FCA website and check that?
30:34Are they not using emotional language, language that makes you want to act quickly or think you're
30:40going to miss out on the one opportunity you will never get again? And I think the only thing I'd build
30:44on from what Aaron says there, particularly on the social media platforms, a lot of these fraudulent
30:50finfluencers will hide behind verified profiles. They're blue tick or whatever. You cannot trust if
30:56somebody has a blue tick, they may well have paid for it. It's not indicative of authenticity or
31:03credibility. And I would add that all that information will be in our website. It's bbc.co.uk
31:09ripoffbritain. Many thanks to the boys for some great advice.
31:19Earlier in the programme, we brought you the story of Nikki McLeod, the former university lecturer,
31:24who was ruthlessly exploited in a romance scam, vinsing her of more than £15,000.
31:30It was only when Nikki's bank stepped in and spoke to her directly that the truth began to dawn. But
31:36breaking the spell of romance scams like this is no easy task, as we found out after spending
31:41time with one bank team whose mission it is to save victims from the clutches of the romance scammers.
31:48This unassuming office in Bootle, Merseyside, is home to a call centre like no other.
31:57Can I ask when did you meet this person? A specialist team of 24 has been set up to help
32:03victims of scams see the light. And how long have you been speaking to this person online,
32:07can I ask? This is banking group Santander's break the spell team. Hi, I'm Claire. Good afternoon.
32:15Hi, my name's Caroline. It's really important that you're honest with us today,
32:19because I need you to make sure that you're not falling victim to a scam.
32:26And we've been given rare access to see the team in action. Michelle Pillsworth is in charge of the
32:33bank's anti-fraud operation. So we deal with all kinds of scams here. Customers who are victims of
32:38impersonation scams where HMRC or police or somebody's pretending to be somebody else.
32:44But she says it's romance scams that present the biggest challenge.
32:49These are the hardest type of scams because these are where customers truly believe
32:53they're in a relationship and they need to send money to keep them safe.
32:56All the leading UK high street banks have fraud prevention measures in place,
33:03often involving a combination of technology and anti-scam education for customers. But Santander says
33:10its initiative is unique because of the in-depth training of its team that specializes in highly
33:16complex and emotionally involved cases. Every call has been put through from other parts of the bank,
33:23where colleagues have become concerned that a customer's activity could indicate that they're
33:28a victim of a scam. What happened is the criminal invests many, many days, weeks, months in socially
33:35engineer our customer to make them believe their story. So they tell them not to trust the bank,
33:40not to trust their family, not to trust their friend, keep it a secret. So we need to try and ensure
33:45our customer trusts us and then we can work with them to realize that they are a victim of a crime.
33:50Hello, is now a convenient time for me to speak to you?
33:54Christy Dobson oversees the team. We get around 30 to 50 referrals a day from our fraud prevention
34:01colleagues. It is quite difficult to manage a team where the conversations are so emotional. The
34:07customer really doesn't want to believe that that person they're speaking to isn't there for their
34:11best interest and that can be really upsetting for the customer and the colleague. One of the spellbreakers
34:18is Eleanor. So I'm just giving you a call. It's in regards to a payment that you tried to make. We
34:23did have some slight concerns over it. So this call is just to try and alleviate these concerns so we
34:29can get it all sorted for you. Is that okay? The customer Eleanor is speaking to has been targeted by
34:35what's known as the Keanu Reeves scam, where a criminal posing as the Hollywood actor builds up a
34:41relationship with a victim before defrauding them. Can I just ask, are you in a relationship with
34:46Keanu or is it just a friendship? But like many scam victims, the customer is in denial and Eleanor
34:54needs to gain her trust. A lot of the time customers will be told or made to feel like they can't trust
35:00their own bank and they'll say things to us that are just not true. I can assure you that it's completely
35:05safe for you to be honest with us, okay? The bank's fraud detection system has previously identified a
35:11suspicious payment being made by the customer and blocked it. His bank details don't match his name
35:18and often when the account details do not match it is because who you're paying does not exist. Satisfied
35:25that the customer is being manipulated by a scammer, she tries to break the spell. Is this payment
35:32anything to do with Keanu? Like for example, is it his manager? Is it friends of Keanu, do you know?
35:39The customer opens up, revealing the payee is someone claiming to be part of the actor's
35:44management team, prompting a reality check from Eleanor. It sounds amazing, who wouldn't want to be
35:50friends with a celebrity? But unfortunately that's how they manage to trick you. You can even search into
35:56Google Keanu Reeves romance scam. But before the spell is fully broken, the customer ends the call.
36:03Eleanor was keen to call her back later that day but the caller said she wanted to check some further
36:08details first. So we'll wait a few days and we're going to give her a call back and then hopefully then
36:15we can fully break it. The team can have as many as two calls a week over several weeks or even months
36:22with one individual customer as they slowly help them come to terms with what's been going on.
36:29Across the office, Claire has just come off her third call with one man she suspects of being
36:35embroiled in a romance scam and she's taking colleague Sean through the results of her investigation.
36:41She's discovered that the man's girlfriend has told him she has to travel abroad to tend to a
36:46critically ill relative. He's provided me with a few images which I have done a reverse image
36:53search on it and it has come back with a number of images getting used of that person and he's
36:59also provided me with documentation and that's coming up as you know it's it's a scam. Have we
37:05talked through the red flags regarding that documentation? Yeah so I've spoken all about it so
37:10I'm going to give him some time to go through it because obviously I've told him how these romance scams work.
37:16He's obviously upset but I think he's understanding the more I'm going through it. It's good that the
37:21customer's been cooperative with sharing that information and hopefully once we speak to him
37:26again we'll be able to pull them apart a little bit more and walk them through them. Yeah. Are you all okay
37:31yourself yeah? Yeah I'll be all right once once I've spoken to him and he's done his own checks
37:36I think we'll get him sorted and get him supported as well. For Claire romance scams can be some of the
37:44the hardest to deal with. You can't say to someone you know first call you're speaking to a scammer you
37:50need to stop you can't do that because especially romance scams so they just continue you know these
37:57texts this love bombing as they call it to make them think that it is all above boards regardless
38:05of the money whether it's small or big it's it's still a massive effect on that customer. A few days
38:11after we filmed the customer that Eleanor had been speaking to went into their local branch and
38:17confirmed to staff they'd been scammed. As for Claire's case after five calls from the team
38:23the man accepted that he'd been targeted by a romance scammer when he saw the same photos being
38:29used with multiple aliases online. Thankfully the bank's fraud detection system intercepted payments
38:35before either victim lost any money. So that's a romance scam from the bank's point of view but how
38:42did the scammers actually enact the crime? To lift the lid on that I'm joined in HQ now by scam interceptors
38:50Nick Stapleton. Nick these scammers seem to be increasingly prolific. Can you explain how the operation works?
38:59It all starts very often with groups on social media. What scammers will all do is they'll just
39:04join kind of groups where people are reminiscing about old times for example because then they
39:08know that they're getting a particular demographic. We even see it on the rip-off Britain and the
39:13morning live Facebook pages so scammers join those groups because they can then target people in the
39:18comments if they see a picture they like they'll send them a comment and say hey be my friend and they'll
39:23try and start a conversation by direct message after that. And are the scammers working as individuals?
39:28No, generally speaking I would say romance scammers now work in teams and there's a good reason for
39:33that. They have these things called hustle kingdoms which are basically like scam universities where
39:39if you're a low-level romance scammer and you're just starting out you take maybe 30% of what you
39:44make from your romance scams and you pay 70% of your take to the hustle kingdom. Now the hustle kingdom
39:50is like a roof over your head but it's also a place that's going to give you a laptop,
39:55it's going to give you a phone so essentially provide you the tools that you need to be able
39:59to run romance scams. On top of that it's going to give you colleagues. Now why are colleagues useful
40:04to a romance scammer? It lets them call on a cast of characters so when they're running their scam if
40:09they need to make their story more believable they can say oh yeah I was injured at work you know I can
40:14introduce you to the doctor so he can explain to you what happened to me. You might even have people who
40:18have different specialisms within the hustle kingdom so you'll have one person who's good at fake
40:21documentation, one person who knows how to make a deep fake video as we saw in Nikki's case and
40:26that means of course there's just all these more tools that allow them to extract money from their
40:29targets. And if someone has a suspicion that they might be being targeted in that way what should
40:35they do? I think the really important thing is if you've got a relationship with somebody online
40:40and you're not sure about it have a chat with your family about it have a chat with some trusted friends
40:45about it and see what they think. Equally you can talk to charities who deal with romance fraud there's plenty of
40:50those out there but most importantly if you have exchanged money and you now think it's a scam
40:54get onto your bank report it to them. Good advice there Nick thanks very much indeed. Thanks for having me.
41:03It's time now to grill our expert David and Aaron on more scam related cases from the Ripoff
41:09Britain inbox and I'm sad to say we do get plenty of different cases. David this one is for you.
41:14Vanessa Hunter says we're constantly told not to click on any links received on a text message yet her
41:20doctors and hospital send text messages asking to click on the link. She says this is so confusing
41:26for older people who don't know whether to click the link or not. I entirely agree. How can she know
41:31which is genuine and which is a scam? I entirely agree as well. So to check the authenticity of a text
41:39message that you've received what one tip that I've got is if it's from like a government body or the
41:44HMRC or maybe one of these delivery firms that then go to their website because and I've checked
41:50they have pages especially about the messages that they will send to you saying this is what we will
41:56send we will never send one of these. Have a double check there before you click through on any link.
42:02Good advice thank you. Okay Aaron we're back to investment again because Sylvia Jackson says a year ago
42:07she invested 250 pounds of what she thought was cryptocurrency. Now the company has tried to
42:13pest her to invest more money and most recently that her current investment is worth £90,000 which
42:20they say is held in a safe wallet and to transfer it out she needs to buy refundable insurance of
42:25around £8,000. So she has refused so far. Does it sound like a scam? I think yes and I think Sylvia probably
42:32knows it sounds like a scam. It's such a common technique to say look pay us some money and we'll
42:38release this money that we can show you you've got on a cloned website or some documents to make you
42:43believe the money's there.
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