Double-scammed: Crooks pose as Good Samaritans in devious ‘recovery room’ scams, victim fleeced of another $45k

Once scammed – then scammed again by people posing as helpful online agents.

Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden today warned of a surge in “recovery room” scams targeting bank customers.

Sladden said recovery room scammers posed as online agencies offering to help victims recover their funds.

But the charlatans charged an upfront “fee” to help.

“The most insidious thing about these scams is they prey on people who have already suffered heavy financial losses and are desperate to recoup those losses,” Sladden said.

Sladden said in one recent case, a customer engaged a recovery room agency after he lost $350,000 in an investment scam – only to lose another $45,000 to the agency.

“It pressured him into making the payment, saying it was a prerequisite to starting the retrieval process,” she added.

Despite the agency website offering a total money-back guarantee and claiming success in more than 95 per cent of cases, the customer saw none of his cash again.

“We’ve seen more and more of these cases in recent months,” Sladden said.

“Invariably, victims lose even more money – and involving such agencies sometimes prejudices their ability to recover their funds.”

Recovery room scammers operate in shady online recesses and claim to be experts in helping…