Scam victim, 63, mocked by fraudster who taunted ‘you’re so thick’ after stealing hundreds of pounds

A 63-year-old woman who had hundreds stolen from her bank account in a telephone scam has revealed the fraudster taunted her afterwards by saying: “You’re so thick.”

Wendy Falconer was caring for her husband after heart surgery at their caravan in Tywyn, Gwynedd, when she got a call from a man who pretended to be from her bank.

She said the number appeared to be that of her bank, in a scamming technique known as spoofing, and that the man seemed “so professional” and knew some of her details.

After sharing a security code that allowed him to send £400 from her account to his, the scammer cruelly mocked Mrs Falconer over the phone.

“He was laughing, saying I was stupid, his language was unbelievable. And he said if you’d like to go to your app now, you’ll see me take your money,” Mrs Falconer told the BBC.

“Why did he need to do that? He’d already got the money. He was laughing so much at me and the language was just awful, calling me names.

“He said ‘you’re so thick, you’re so stupid’. I was just in shock.”

Mrs Falconer, who later got a refund from her bank, added: “I didn’t sleep that night, because all I could hear was his voice, laughing at me and this abuse.”

UK Finance said that £580m was lost to fraudsters in the first half of 2023, with romance scams and identity theft being among the fastest-growing categories.

Detective constable Rachel Roberts from North Wales Police, which is investigating the crime, said spoofing was a common scam - adding that it was not just banks’ phone numbers that could be mimicked.

“We also see victims being contacted by telephone with suspects claiming to be from Amazon and quite often other utility companies, Microsoft, maybe even Apple,” she said.

“A few victims have reported to us that they’ve had phone calls purporting to be from their GP, or from their local pharmacy, asking for that victim to provide bank details so that they can pay for their prescriptions or pay for a delivery service.”

Ofcom recommends never giving out personal information in response to an incoming call or to rely upon caller ID as the sole means of identification, especially if the caller asks to carry out an action which might have financial consequences.