How often do you share your card details without even thinking about it? This is what gave conman James** the opening he needed to exploit people’s trust and steal their cash
“Getting people to hand over their money on the phone was pretty easy. I’d had a year in a call centre a while back and it’s pretty much the same. I did it from my kitchen. The living room sounds too soft over the phone. The other kid I did this with used office sound effects in the background but I didn’t bother. I don’t think people notice.
There are hackers who can access systems for restaurant booking sites. You’d be surprised how often that happens. They’d tell me when someone cancelled a booking – and that would be my opening. The good thing about booking sites is that people don’t usually remember the details – some sites ask for a deposit, some don’t, sometimes people book directly with a restaurant site, sometimes through a third party – the whole thing is so vague.
When a booking cancellation comes through to me, I need the person’s phone number. I’ll have that either from the website or I can get it from an online database. That’s a gold mine – you can get postcodes, area info, friends’ names.
So, I’d ring the person who cancelled and say I’m from the restaurant booking site and it’s about the cancellation. Accents are good – Scottish and Irish are best, they sound friendly. I used to live in Lothian, so I can do a nice soft Scottish accent.
I’d…
