Such a shame that while so many people are showing just how great the human race can be during this strange and challenging time
There are some who are doing the opposite.
Yesterday as we sat in the garden my partner started to get messages and phone calls from friends, family and pupils
All saying they’d got her Facebook message and asking if she was OK.
They had all received variations of a message from her in which she asked to borrow £300 urgently which she would pay back the following day.
Her Facebook account had been hacked.
Luckily most people who got the false message suspected this was a scam and got in touch to confirm
This meant she could change her Facebook log in details and send a warning message out to all her contacts
Unfortunately this was too late for one of our oldest friends who went ahead and paid the money without question into a false bank account.
He later showed us the fake conversation he’d had with the person posing as my partner.
In it he told “her” that he didn’t actually have online banking but could give her cash
The fraudster replied “What about Paul - doesn’t he have it?”
This is creepy because it turns out our friend has a step son called Paul he doesn’t keep in touch with and who we actually knew nothing about.
So how did the fraudster know?
In the end our goof friend went ahead and set up online banking and transferred the money thinking he was doing us a favour. Thats the kind of guy he is. The fact that someone has taken advantage of this makes our blood boil.
The police are now involved so hopefully he will get it back
I’m passing this story on just to make you aware that there are people out there prepared to take advantage of the hardship, confusion and uncertainty that many are going through.
So it just might be a good time to take a bit of pre-emptive action and change some crucial passwords.
This person had clearly been able to get into my partner’s account and have a good look at her contacts.
Rather than sending a blanket message to all her contacts they had cherry picked people they thought most likely to respond positively.
Touchingly almost all of them would have helped if the need had been genuine but realised that this is not the sort of favour you would ask by text or instant message.
Stay safe
Bests
