An elderly parent is reportedly devastated after scammers contacted him via email disguised as his own daughter.
Françoise Schorosch says the criminals said all the right things to her father online, perfectly mimicking the way she writes partly in German and partly in English, The Guardian reports.
This style of scam is also known as the “Hi Dad” or “Hi Mom” fraud, where criminals use sensitive information to pose as someone’s loved one and trick them into transferring money.
In Schorosch’s case, hackers were able to gain access to her emails while she was in the process of buying her first home.
“I shared discussions about working with lawyers, surveyors and real estate agents. I had kept him informed of all financial matters and sought his advice as this was my first purchase. I suspect someone gained access to our email exchange and then contacted him directly.”
By using Schorosch’s email address – but with ’email.com’ instead of ‘gmail.com’ – the fraudsters were able to contact her father without raising suspicion, ultimately convincing him to pay €7,000 or about Transfer $9,100 from Deutsche Bank to a national bank. account.
A week later, when her father wondered why he didn’t get a thank you or an update from his daughter, the truth came to light.
Neither Nationwide nor Deutsche Bank, where the money came from, have offered refunds or assistance to the victim.
Nationwide says Deutsche Bank must be contacted first.
“We cannot share details about our customer’s account due to our confidentiality obligations, but can confirm that appropriate steps have been taken to investigate and take action on the matters reported to us. Since the payment was sent from an account with Deutsche Bank, they will need to contact them to help get the money back. To date, we have had no contact with Deutsche Bank regarding this payment…
If we receive a report of a scam involving a payment from abroad, we will still seek to apply industry best practices to investigate and repatriate any remaining funds.”
However, when The Observer asked Deutsche Bank to notify Nationwide, the bank said it could not comment on the matter due to German bank secrecy laws.
As for the victim, Schorosch says her father is still devastated.
“He truly believed that his daughter was reaching out to him for financial support and wanted to help. He is now retired and living on a pension… I know he has had several sleepless nights over this.”
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