Do you remember Tales of the Unexpected? I was routinely terrified by the 1980s’ TV adaptations of Roald Dahl’s sinister short stories, and this week had a flashback with a disturbing financial twist.
Just in time for Halloween, the actor Simon Callow is starring in a social media video series eerily reminiscent of the vintage show — but with the added frisson of fraud.
Called The Scammer House of Horrors he sits in front of a roaring fire narrating real-life horror stories about crypto scams, romance fraud and fake invoices . . . which all come to a sticky end.
Callow says he was motivated to make the films, backed by NatWest Bank, “so that people wake up to the fact that fraud is not something that happens to other people. It’s something that happens to you”.
In fact, it very nearly happened to him.
Admitting that he knows “nothing at all about money”, Callow was startled when his “bank” phoned and said there was an issue with his account. “They asked very sensible questions, they knew my account number and they were just very businesslike. It was very well acted,” he says.
His husband Sebastian smelled a rat when Callow started searching for a card reader he had never used to authorise a transaction: “I’ve had one for some time, but haven’t the slightest idea what it’s for,” he admits.
After Sebastian challenged the caller “of course, the line went dead.”
Callow realises he had a lucky escape. “I was a little shocked to…
