Since 2019, the award-winning Beacon Fraud Hub (part of Beacon Victim Care) has been supporting thousands of fraud victims and last year the service recovered £1.1 million to victims. As the service hits another significant milestone, with over £2 million recovered to victims of crime, we’re sharing the experience of one of the many service users supported by the team:
“Mary* was a victim of a push payment scam. She was contacted by telephone and received a call from someone stating they were from HMRC. They had an automated message which claimed that there was a tax fraud in her name and if she did not speak to an advisor soon, she would be arrested. She checked the number she was called from, and it matched the genuine Government number for HMRC.
“Mary spoke with different operators, they provided her with case reference numbers, leading her to believe they were genuine. She was told by the scammers she owed £5,288 in tax and would be taken to court if this was not paid. Mary had never been in any trouble before and was very worried by this. She transferred £5,000 to the scammers.
“As a result, she was in her overdraft and was being charged by Barclays for the interest on this. She had great difficulty in speaking with the Bank and felt the customer service was very poor.
“Beacon Fraud Hub received her referral and began their support which provided emotional support and practical support writing to the Bank’s CEO. Following her complaint letter to the Bank, she received a full refund of the £5000, plus £100 compensation as an apology for the delayed and poor customer service. She also received the interest she had paid on the overdraft.
“Mary was so relieved with the outcome and stated that she did not know services such as ours existed and feels so grateful for the support she received.”