The link took me to what seemed to be an NHS website whose logo, font and colours were all extremely convincing. You now have to pay for tests so when it asked for payment card details it didn’t ring alarm bells.
I waited for a confirmation email but instead I began to receive text messages from Santander saying my card was being used to make payments and to confirm that it was me. I also received calls from private numbers which I didn’t answer as by then I had realised that I had made a horrible mistake and was being scammed, so I was frantically trying to block my card.
I felt so embarrassed that I could have fallen for this as a 29-year-old who had dodged scams exactly like this before.
On the call the next morning, the man asked me to confirm some details (those I had entered into the website) and said my mobile banking needed to be reset so he would send me a one-time passcode. He then asked me to tell him what it was.
Now, anyone who uses mobile banking will know that text messages containing one-time passcodes always tell you never to share them, even with staff. I told him I would do no such thing. “Ma’am, I need to verify your account information,” he said. When I objected again, he hung up. My stomach sank: I had almost fallen victim to the scammers again.
I immediately called Santander’s fraud line on a number I could verify and they listed back to me the last few transactions I had made (which these scammers wouldn’t know). Luckily, I…
