Dating Site Scammers Transfer Money And Want Part Abck In Tunes Codes

If you used a money transfer service. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to get your money back if you’ve paid through a wire service such as MoneyGram, PayPoint or Western Union. Even if you can’t get your money back, there are other things you can do – like reporting the scam and getting financial or emotional support. Luxy is very popular as the best elite dating site. Here, the elite and upper-class members of society try to find their perfect match. Luxy puts effort into making sure that only the prosperous and sophisticated can join the site, making it a very exclusive dating platform. The scammer then instructs the consumer to provide the 16-digit code on the back of the card (after the buyer scratches or peels off the label) to the scammer via email or text message. Once this is done, the funds on the card are quickly depleted by the scammer and the consumer victim is left with a worthless piece of plastic. Romance scams can overlap with or evolve into other forms of fraud. For example, international criminal gangs use dating sites to recruit unwitting “money mules” to launder ill-gotten funds through their bank accounts or other means. In September 2021, the FBI reported a rising trend of sham sweethearts enticing their targets to make.

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

Text messages sent by banks to customers are being intercepted by fraudsters, we can reveal.

In the ruse, scammers are hijacking customers' mobile phones and diverting all calls and texts to their own handset.

The crooks then use information in these messages to steal vast sums from account holders. Victims are left in the dark until they realise their accounts have been emptied.

The shocking findings come as part of a major Money Mail and This is Money investigation into fraud on Santander accounts. They call into question whether it is safe for Santander and other banks to use text messages to confirm payments.

Dating Site Scammers Transfer Money And Want Part Back In Itunes Codes List

Threat: Scammers are hijacking customers' mobile phones and diverting all calls and texts to their own handset

Over the past month we have told how Santander is fobbing off fraud victims who have lost their life savings this way.

Typically, fraudsters have been able to transfer money out of customers' accounts by hacking into their online banking or taking control of their computers to obtain passcodes required to authorise payments.

In most cases, the bank blamed customers for handing over codes, sent by text to their registered mobile phones. But we have found crooks are getting hold of the codes without customers' knowledge.

Share this article

HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP

Once they have diverted texts to their own phones, criminals hack into their victims' computers or accounts to make transactions.

Santander continues to insist it is safe to use texts to confirm payments are genuine. It says other banks are being hit by exactly the same type of scam.

Yet in the U.S., the financial regulators have warned text messages are not secure enough.

And most of Britain's big banks, including HSBC, Barclays and NatWest, use safer methods of authorising payments.

HOW THE MOBILE SCAM WORKS

The fraudsters begin by gathering as much information as possible on victims

1 Fraudsters gather as much information as possible on victims. They intercept post, hack emails or buy data on the black market.

They stalk victims online, checking their Facebook page for details such as their first school, pet’s name and favourite football team. They may look on genealogy websites to find the victim’s mother’s maiden name.

Dating Site Scammers Transfer Money And Want Part Back In Itunes Codes Online

In many cases they phone the victim posing as a reputable company, such as BT or the bank itself, and extract further information.

2 With this data, the criminals pose as the customer and call their mobile phone company saying their handset has been lost or stolen.

They use the details they have gleaned to get through the firm’s security checks and ask for all calls to be diverted to a new phone.

Some hack into your mobile phone account online, known as ‘sim-swapping’. The sim card is the tiny electronic chip you insert into your handset. It links your handset to your phone number and network provider as well as all the information that identifies you as a customer. You can buy these chips for as little as £1 from newsagents and supermarkets.

Dating site scammers transfer money and want part back in itunes codes 2020

3 The victim will no longer be able to make or receive calls and texts. They may not notice or think it’s just a signal problem.

4 Gang members hack into the customer’s online banking and request huge transfers out of the account. In Santander’s case, the bank sends a text message to the customer’s mobile phone containing a unique passcode.

5 This text is sent to the criminals’ handset and they enter it into the customer’s online banking to confirm payments are genuine.

If the bank’s system flags the large payments as suspicious, it may call the customer’s mobile, but it will be the fraudster who answers.

They will pretend to be the victim and insist that payments are pushed through. The victim may know nothing about the scam until they go online and see the account is empty.

Dating Site Scammers Transfer Money And Want Part Abck In Tunes Codes Free

Additional checks, such as having to enter additional passwords or putting a debit card into a hand-held card reader, are carried out.

However, Santander is among a small number of banks, such as Lloyds, Halifax, Tesco Bank, TSB and Metro Bank, which rely on phone calls and texts to check online payments are genuine.

There have been reports suggesting a Halifax customer has had their mobile hijacked.

Martin Alderson, chief executive of Codified Security, which tests mobile app security, says: 'Text messages are not secure and should not be used by banks to confirm payments. The UK should follow the lead of the U.S. government in warning of these risks.'

Ann Dunn, 62, from London, lost £22,300 when fraudsters raided her account. The money was a redundancy payment, which was meant to tide her over until she could draw her pension. But for months Santander blamed Ann and refused a refund.

She'd had a fake text message saying there was suspicious activity on her account.

When she called the number in the text, the crook claimed to be from Santander's fraud team and tricked her into letting him access her laptop remotely.

He was able to use the EE website to get all her calls and texts sent to his handset. He used the One Time Passcodes Santander sent in texts to empty her account.

Dating site scammers transfer money and want part abck in tunes codes 2020Dating site scammers transfer money and want part back in itunes codes free

Dating Site Scammers Transfer Money And Want Part Back In Itunes Codes Free

The bank sent letters insisting Ann was at fault, but repaid the cash after she called Money Mail.

EE says as part of its fraud prevention checks it sent Ann a PIN to complete the swap.

'I'm normally a strong person, but I've lost all my self-esteem,' says Ann. Santander says it has apologised to her.

David and Margaret Farnworth, aged 66 and 67, had £19,500 drained from their Santander accounts after criminals intercepted the bank's text messages.

The fraudsters called Tesco Mobile, the couple's phone provider, posing as Margaret.

Once they have diverted texts to their own phones, criminals hack into their victims' computers or accounts to make transactions

After 13 attempts to get through security, they had all calls and texts diverted to a new phone. Even after the fraud came to light, Tesco billed Margaret for the gangs' calls.

The couple, from East Lancashire, also received threatening phone calls from the gang.

They were visiting Holland when fraudsters struck. They lost mobile signal, but thought it was an issue with calling from abroad.

David, a retired food standards consultant, says: 'I've been to the police, but they're not interested.'

Dating site scammers transfer money and want part back in itunes codes list

Santander issued a refund within 24 hours.

A Tesco spokeswoman says: 'Further steps have been introduced to our security procedure to prevent incidents of this kind.'

Money Mail has heard from other Santander fraud victims who say they did not enter the text message codes.

A spokesman for the bank says: 'Santander does not rely solely on SMS messages for fraud prevention. If a customer is a victim of sim-swap fraud, we refund the money lost in accordance with payment services regulations.

Dating site scammers transfer money and want part abck in tunes codes free

'Santander sees similar levels of fraud to the rest of the industry. We invest not only in processes and systems to detect and prevent fraud, but also in education programmes to help customers understand the importance of protecting and maintaining the confidentiality of their data.'

A Halifax spokeswoman says: 'We have sophisticated methods in place to check for sim-swapping and call forwarding, and work with network providers on this.'

l.milner@dailymail.co.uk

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW EACH WEEK: LISTEN TO THE THIS IS MONEY PODCAST - ON ITUNES, ON ACAST AND ON AUDIOBOOM