Episode 7 Fake Britain


Episode 7

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Welcome to a world where nothing is quite as it seems.

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Welcome to Fake Britain.

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-Get down, get down!

-On the floor now!

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Put your hands behind your back now!

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It's just an ordinary house. It could be anywhere in the country.

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But this is the Fake Britain house, and it's filled with fakes.

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You may not know it, but your home could be too.

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In this series, we'll be investigating the criminals

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trying to get their hands on your cash,

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by using fraud,

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forgeries and fakery.

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And I'll be showing you how you can avoid being taken for a ride.

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Today, on Fake Britain.

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The fake Facebook profiles making people's lives hell.

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They were saying that I was an escort.

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Somebody might see me and think, "There's that girl who's an escort,"

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which is a horrible feeling to have.

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Fake washing powder and the dangers it poses to the public.

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It could be having ingredients that could cause cancer.

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Families at war,

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how one man was nearly swindled out of his inheritance by a fake will.

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The pain that has caused, it's just been horrendous.

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And how a gang of fakers conned and robbed NHS staff

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up and down the country.

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They were very serious adversaries.

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We could not predict when they were next going to strike

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and that made them very difficult to catch.

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We Brits love Facebook.

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The company says 24 million of us log in every day.

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And over half the UK population has an active account.

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Look, even Fake Britain's got one.

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But what happens when someone creates a fake profile

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in your name to try to defraud you and your friends?

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Facebook estimates there are over 80 million fake profiles out there.

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Many of these are harmless, but a significant number,

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maybe as many as 14 million according to Facebook itself,

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are being operated by fraudsters.

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So who's being targeted by the Facebook fakers?

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One man who knows what it's like to have your Facebook profile faked

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is Father Peter Wilson.

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He's a priest in a London parish

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and he uses Facebook to stay in touch with his flock.

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But one day, he got a phone call he wasn't expecting.

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A friend got in touch, and said,

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"I think your identity's been stolen

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"because you've just approached me asking me for money,

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"and I don't think it is you."

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I laughed it off, but then more and more friends got in touch,

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and it soon emerged that somebody had indeed taken my photograph

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and set up an alternative account in my name,

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and had approached all my friends asking for money.

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They knew it wasn't me

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because they know I wouldn't do something like that.

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And it turns out that Father Peter is not the only man of the cloth

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to be targeted in this way.

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I know in the past few days, another priest colleague of mine

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has had the same happen.

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Before anyone was taken in by the bogus account,

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Father Peter managed to alert Facebook

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and the fake profile was taken down immediately.

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But not every victim of the Facebook fakers gets away so lightly.

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Bromley resident Jasmine Jones deactivated her Facebook account

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a couple of years ago.

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So she was surprised to see a message from Facebook.

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I had an e-mail notification to say,

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"Your Facebook has been reactivated,"

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which I thought, how strange.

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I didn't even know this was possible.

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I assumed my Facebook had been deleted

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and all the pictures had gone.

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Only did I find out that you can just type in your password again

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with your e-mail address,

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and that same Facebook you had years ago has never been deleted.

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Jasmine's old Facebook account had been hacked.

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The faker had somehow figured out her password

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and now had complete access to her old account.

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Jasmine contacted Facebook immediately.

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If you actually contact Facebook,

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it takes them two or three weeks to completely delete that account.

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And by that time, it was too late.

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The person had already taken so much information from my e-mail addresses

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and saved so many pictures from my old Facebook,

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they'd already started becoming me.

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They'd read all my messages, so they saw exactly how I spoke.

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Exactly what sort of friends I have, where I'd been out,

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they'd also saved videos of my friends and I

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when we'd gone on trips, like to Thorpe Park.

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So effectively, they'd just sort of taken all my identity

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and were waiting to build on it and start a scam and make money from it.

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And it didn't take the faker long to go to work.

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When I looked online, there were ten fake Facebooks of me.

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They were saying that I was an escort.

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And that people could pay this person money

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to come and meet up with me.

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So I just thought, I went to the police about it and I said,

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"This is getting outrageous. It's defamation of character.

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"I'm a law graduate, I'm not an escort."

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Fake profiles, which used Jasmine's images

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but different names, were appearing on Facebook.

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The faker was using the profiles to befriend other Facebook users,

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flirting with them, and then once a relationship had been established,

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offering them sex in exchange for money.

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Jasmine notified Facebook every time it happened,

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but hours after one profile was taken down, another would appear.

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The fake profiles that the fraudster had created

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continued to have a very real impact on Jasmine's life.

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Somebody might see me in the street and think, "There's that girl

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"who's an escort," which is just a horrible feeling to have.

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And is the person who's pretending to be me,

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am I looking them in the eye every day?

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Like Jasmine, most victims of Facebook fakery

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have no idea who the faker is.

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But what happens when you discover that the person

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who's hacked your Facebook account is someone you know?

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Later, we'll meet a young woman still coming to terms

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with having her Facebook profile faked by someone she trusted.

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Getting our whites whiter is big business.

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Millions of packs of washing powder are sold every year in the UK,

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and you can bet when there's big money on offer,

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the fakers want to get involved.

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We've seen a lot of counterfeits in the Fake Britain house.

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But are you prepared to take the challenge?

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Can you tell which one of these is fake, and which one is real?

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Well, as our story shows, the packs may look very similar,

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but what's inside can be very different.

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Today we're with Mark Rolfe from Kent Trading Standards.

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He's just found out that the authorities have seized

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a suspicious shipment of washing powder at the port of Dover.

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We're on our way to the docks.

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We've had a call from our colleagues in the Borders Agency,

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who tell us that they've got a lorry load

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of what they think is fake washing powder.

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So we're going to go down to the port, see what they've got,

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and if they're right, as they usually are, it's fair to say,

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then we'll take possession of it and deal with it from there.

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And Mark needs to act quickly.

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It's really important for us to get to the docks as soon as we can,

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to assess what's there, what's going on and to take the right action

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and get hold of the product.

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And stop it going any further into the consumer chain.

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It's a massive haul. The largest seen in the UK for four years.

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There's 33 pallets here, which is just over 2,500 packets.

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Or 21 tonnes of fake washing powder.

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We estimate that will be worth about £50,000.

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Mark goes to work.

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He's looking for telltale signs that the powder is fake.

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And the smell of the product is a useful indicator of fakery.

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I was having a sniff, because our experience is that quite often

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these fake washing powders contain chlorides, which is kind of bleach.

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Often, you can smell that when you open the box.

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This one certainly doesn't smell like a premium brand washing powder.

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So, what's in fake washing powder?

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And does using it pose a risk for you and your family?

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Ian Niven is a chemist. He's spent the last 30 years

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formulating and testing washing powders

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for major detergent brands.

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He believes fake washing powder

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poses a number of serious health risks to the public.

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When you buy a fake product,

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do you really think that somebody who's cheating the consumer in

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that sort of way is going to be that bothered what goes into his product?

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So, you could, at the worst,

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be having ingredients that could cause cancer.

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You can certainly have ingredients that would cause irritation.

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Because the formulation will be very carefully specified.

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So, babies, for instance, with sensitive skin,

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you could have real problems using a fake product.

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And what will a fake product like this do to your clothes?

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You'll get clothes going yellow, perhaps,

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because it doesn't remove the fats.

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You could have clothes losing their colour and fading,

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because the bleach is too aggressive.

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Or maybe it won't remove the stains at all

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because there's no bleach in there.

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We asked Ian to compare the fake and the real products.

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My first impression is that this looks a very good product.

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You can see all the granules in there,

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and they're not clumped together at all.

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If we move to the other product, you can see lots of lumps.

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And all that powder stuck to the sides of the box,

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it's not the sign of a quality product.

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A quality detergent product

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will never stick to the insides of the pack.

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So if you bring one home and find it stuck like that,

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it may be you've got a fake.

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So, what is actually in this box of fake washing powder

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and could it be harmful to you and me?

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We asked Dr Daniel Driscoll at Surrey University to analyse

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the fake powder and find out exactly what it consists of.

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These fake washing powders consist mostly of a compound called

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sodium carbonate, which you can buy in a supermarket,

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usually labelled as soda crystals.

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And there's also some cheap fragrance thrown in

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to try and make it at least smell of something.

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And then it's all mixed together and put in a cheap cardboard box.

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The washing powder manufactured by the big brands is closely regulated.

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And hundreds of tests are carried out

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before the product hits the shelves.

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One key test is for pH, which measures acidity.

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We asked Dr Driscoll to test the pH of the fake product

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and the real thing.

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No washing powder sold in the UK will have a pH of over 11.

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The real product measured 10.7,

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well within safe levels for a product like washing powder.

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What about the fake?

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And we see the fake sample has a pH of 11.5.

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It's a shocking finding.

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The fake powder is as corrosive as some household bleaches

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or oven cleaners.

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The fake washing powder has a high pH.

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This could be a problem if you have wet hands

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and touch the powder, as it could start causing skin irritation

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or possibly even minor burns.

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And given how corrosive this product is,

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Dr Driscoll is also concerned about the risks

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the fake washing powder poses to young children.

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If a child were to swallow this fake washing powder,

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there's every chance it could do some real damage.

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There is unlikely to be any safety controls as there would be

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presumably with the genuine powders,

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such as other compounds included to minimise the damage.

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This fake washing powder is very unlikely

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to have such things in place.

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Making sure that YOU make decisions

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about what happens to everything you own when you die,

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and not have someone else doing it, isn't that difficult.

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You just write one of these, a will.

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It's an important legal document, but even a will can be faked.

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And when it is, like this one, it can devastate the families involved.

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Stephen Crisp recently lost his grandfather, Bob.

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A man who helped to bring him up.

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He was a good grandfather.

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And I went to live with them, my grandad and my nan,

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when I was younger.

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Bob had owned a house and had over £10,000 in savings.

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Several months before his death, he wrote his will,

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dividing his estate between his grandson Stephen and Stephen's aunt.

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Bob took the further precaution of providing each of them with a copy

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of his will, and asked them both not to disclose the contents to anyone.

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Bob was close to Stephen,

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but had had a difficult relationship with his own son, Nigel,

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Stephen's father.

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Just before he died, Bob asked Stephen to look after his affairs.

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My grandfather, a few weeks before he passed away,

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gave me all his bank account details and everything for me to look after.

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Immediately after Bob's death, Stephen's father, Nigel,

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began insisting there was no need to invite anyone to the funeral.

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Which Stephen found strange.

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Soon after the funeral,

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Stephen needed to access his grandfather's account

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to cover maintenance bills on his grandfather's house.

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But he was in for a nasty surprise.

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When I went down to the bank,

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and I see the lady, and said to her,

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"I'm trying to get some money out of my grandfather's account."

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Took all his details.

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And she was like, "Yeah, I'm afraid that account has been closed."

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I asked, "How could that have been closed?"

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And she said, "Well, somebody has come down here,

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"they have used a death certificate and a will."

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Bob's bank account had been emptied.

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His life savings, over £10,000, gone.

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When Stephen asked why the bank had paid out the money,

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he was told that someone claiming to be both the executor

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and beneficiary and possessing a will confirming those facts

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had withdrawn the money and closed the account.

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Stephen was furious.

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He immediately applied to have

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his grandfather's estate placed in probate.

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This put the process on pause,

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and dispersal of his grandfather's estate

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would have to be reviewed by a legal authority.

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But Stephen was in for a further shock.

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I was driving past one day,

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and I noticed two "For Sale" boards outside my grandfather's house.

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So I rang up one of the estate agents, who I know very well,

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and he said that, "Your father's put it on."

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I said, "He can't, it's in probate."

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And that was when I decided then that, you know, enough's enough.

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Seeing that his father was only weeks away

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from selling the property, valued at £135,000,

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Stephen contacted the police.

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His case was dealt with by DC Jill Lacey.

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I went and met Stephen myself,

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spent quite a lengthy time talking to him

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and other members of the family.

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After which it became fairly apparent that indeed,

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a fraud had taken place,

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and there ensued the criminal investigation.

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DC Lacey conducted a search of Nigel and Jenny Crisp's house.

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She recovered what she suspected was the fake will.

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The case would hinge on being able to prove the will Stephen had

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was real, and the one recovered from his parents' house was fake.

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This is a copy of the will that was written by the offenders.

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These documents can be downloaded from the internet for a small fee,

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they can purchased in supermarkets.

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All that's needed is for the document to be witnessed,

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taken along to a financial institution,

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as was in this case, and the money is accessed and it's gone.

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Conveniently, the two witnesses who'd signed the fake will

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were both dead.

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If DC Lacey was to prove the will was indeed a fake,

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she'd need conclusive evidence.

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She decided to have a handwriting expert examine the will.

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Handwriting samples were taken from both suspects

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and those samples, along with the suspected fake will,

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were sent to be analysed.

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These are some handwriting specimens written by one of the suspects,

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they were written for the police.

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And they contain several lines of the text

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that is present within the will.

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It was clear to the analyst that Nigel Crisp's handwriting

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and the handwriting used in the suspect fake will

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were remarkably similar.

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It wasn't particularly sophisticated,

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it was simply a document that was written out

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in more or less the person's normal handwriting.

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It wasn't particularly disguised,

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it was maybe a little bit carefully written,

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but I've seen many documents that are much more disguised than this one.

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The handwriting proved to be Nigel's, Stephen's father.

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This gave DC Lacey the conclusive piece of evidence she needed.

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Nigel and Jenny Crisp maintained their innocence

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throughout the investigation, but once the case came to court,

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they admitted their guilt.

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Nigel admitted the offence of making a false instrument,

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while Jenny admitted to using a false instrument with intent.

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Both received suspended sentences,

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and have been ordered to repay Stephen Crisp and his aunt £16,000.

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Criminal cases which set members of a single family

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against each other are particularly difficult

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for both the family members involved

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and the police officers investigating.

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The pain that has caused, it's just been horrendous.

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You're asking people to provide information

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to an investigation against a father, a mother,

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any other relative, and it's really quite difficult.

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But I think there's always going to have to be a good reason

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for doing that, and I feel in this case there was.

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Over the last few years, an increasing number of fake wills

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have been used to steal inheritances.

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Nigel and Jenny Crisp used a will template

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downloaded from the internet to create their fake will.

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So, has the availability of do-it-yourself wills

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made making a fake one all too easy?

0:19:440:19:47

And what can you do to protect YOUR will?

0:19:470:19:49

Richard Roberts is one of the UK's leading experts on wills

0:19:510:19:54

and he currently chairs the Law Society's wills committee.

0:19:540:19:58

Fake wills are certainly on the increase.

0:20:000:20:03

Part of that is down to the fact that it's now easier to create

0:20:030:20:08

a fake will, primarily because you can use the internet to create

0:20:080:20:13

a will and therefore, unscrupulous relatives are using that as a means.

0:20:130:20:18

And Richard has some advice for anyone planning to make a will.

0:20:200:20:24

In Stephen's case, I think

0:20:250:20:27

the real key point there was that the will was made by a solicitor.

0:20:270:20:32

Now, of course, as a lawyer,

0:20:320:20:33

I'm bound to say that it's the right thing to have a solicitor

0:20:330:20:36

make your will, but in this case, it really was helpful

0:20:360:20:40

because that solicitor had a valid will with a proper signature on.

0:20:400:20:45

It was therefore very much easier for the police to uncover that

0:20:450:20:49

sort of fraud.

0:20:490:20:50

HE GIGGLES

0:20:510:20:55

Six months after seeing his parents' fakery exposed, Stephen has been

0:20:550:21:00

able to sell his grandfather's house and he's moving on with his life.

0:21:000:21:04

But repairing family ties is going to take some time.

0:21:060:21:09

My mother, she will come over and see me still.

0:21:110:21:15

Even after what she has done,

0:21:150:21:18

I still try my hardest to keep a relationship with her.

0:21:180:21:23

And for Stephen's oldest son, Thomas, who used to

0:21:250:21:28

visit his grandparents, the family discord has been unsettling.

0:21:280:21:33

We just have to try and work through it as a family with him

0:21:330:21:36

and, you know, help him get over it and also, you know,

0:21:360:21:39

to help Stephen as well cos he's got no contact with his dad any more.

0:21:390:21:42

Stephen still muses on what his grandfather would make

0:21:420:21:46

of the sequence of events that followed his death.

0:21:460:21:49

I know he wouldn't be surprised of what has happened.

0:21:500:21:54

He did warn us, before he passed away, that we need to

0:21:540:21:59

watch Nigel as he knew what he was capable of.

0:21:590:22:05

When you work for one of the world's biggest employers,

0:22:100:22:13

not to mention a much-loved and trusted British institution,

0:22:130:22:18

you might assume that you're free from the clutches of fakers

0:22:180:22:21

while you're at work.

0:22:210:22:23

But as many NHS employees,

0:22:230:22:25

from consultants through to cleaners discovered,

0:22:250:22:28

they were being targeted by criminal gangs

0:22:280:22:31

while they were working in hospitals across the country.

0:22:310:22:35

In 2009, a gang calling themselves the Coventry Falcons began

0:22:390:22:44

faking their way into NHS hospitals up and down the country.

0:22:440:22:47

The gang were expert con artists.

0:22:510:22:53

They'd pose as NHS staff in order to steal bank cards

0:22:530:22:56

from off-limits areas.

0:22:560:22:58

They'd then go on to commit multiple frauds on the stolen cards...

0:22:580:23:03

and they'd often return to the same hospital as many as six times.

0:23:030:23:07

The gang's crime spree was the largest

0:23:090:23:11

and longest-running series of frauds ever carried out against NHS staff.

0:23:110:23:16

Dave Cockburn is the security supervisor at

0:23:160:23:19

Northampton General Hospital, one of the hospitals targeted by the gang.

0:23:190:23:24

They were very serious adversaries.

0:23:260:23:27

We could not predict when they were next going to strike

0:23:270:23:30

and that made them very difficult to catch.

0:23:300:23:32

But it wasn't just Dave's patch.

0:23:340:23:36

Northampton was one of over 20 NHS hospitals targeted by the gang.

0:23:360:23:40

Chris MacDonald works for NHS Protect,

0:23:410:23:45

the government agency tasked with protecting NHS staff.

0:23:450:23:48

From 2010 onwards,

0:23:480:23:50

he was deluged with reports of theft from staff-only areas.

0:23:500:23:54

I think they saw hospitals as being a relatively easy target

0:23:550:23:59

because they're big, open places with lots

0:23:590:24:02

and lots of people milling around all the time,

0:24:020:24:04

so they don't stand out as being anything other than somebody

0:24:040:24:06

who perhaps should be there.

0:24:060:24:08

And they dressed as if they should be there.

0:24:080:24:10

The fraudsters would dress smartly,

0:24:130:24:15

hoping to pass themselves off as NHS staff.

0:24:150:24:18

Some of the gang used fake NHS IDs.

0:24:180:24:23

Others would just walk around confidently,

0:24:230:24:26

with a piece of paper in their hand

0:24:260:24:28

or a mobile phone pressed to their ear.

0:24:280:24:30

They were trying to blend in and go unnoticed.

0:24:300:24:33

They were confident enough that if they were approached,

0:24:350:24:37

they would be able to say, "I'm simply here to do X, Y or Z,"

0:24:370:24:40

whether it be a survey, whether they try and pass

0:24:400:24:42

themselves off as a clinician or something along those lines.

0:24:420:24:45

They were coming into the NHS in order to make use

0:24:450:24:48

of a weakness that they've perceived,

0:24:480:24:51

and they were very specific in the areas they would target.

0:24:510:24:53

They'll arrive at a hospital by car,

0:24:570:24:59

they'll drop off the person who's going to be doing the theft.

0:24:590:25:03

Areas that contain the offices of the staff have got access control.

0:25:050:25:09

In other words, a member of the public can't get in because they've

0:25:090:25:13

either got to use a swipe card or put in a code into a digital lock.

0:25:130:25:17

So to get into those offices, what the group do

0:25:170:25:19

is they hang around outside, quite literally,

0:25:190:25:21

often with a telephone to their ear, and then,

0:25:210:25:24

when a member of staff comes to go through the door,

0:25:240:25:26

they either, as they release the door lock,

0:25:260:25:29

hold the door open for them then follow them through

0:25:290:25:31

or just straightforward,

0:25:310:25:32

catch the door after the person's walked through and walk in.

0:25:320:25:35

It's as simple as that.

0:25:350:25:36

They will gain access to that access control corridor area.

0:25:380:25:41

They'll go into an empty office.

0:25:410:25:42

They'll steal a wallet or purse and they're out.

0:25:420:25:44

And they're in there for less than a minute, usually.

0:25:440:25:47

About half an hour later or so,

0:25:490:25:50

the staff member that's lost the wallet will receive a phone call

0:25:500:25:53

purporting to come from the fraud department of their bank.

0:25:530:25:56

And they're very convincing.

0:25:580:26:00

They'll convince that person that they are from the bank.

0:26:000:26:02

And they'll do that simply by giving them their name,

0:26:020:26:05

their date of birth.

0:26:050:26:06

They'll do that cos they've got the driving licence.

0:26:060:26:09

And they'll even tell them what they used their credit card for last.

0:26:090:26:13

They'll do that because nine times out of 10,

0:26:130:26:15

people put the receipts in their wallet.

0:26:150:26:17

The fake bank call was at the very heart of the scam.

0:26:190:26:23

The gang's ability to convince their targets

0:26:230:26:25

they were being contacted by real bank staff

0:26:250:26:28

allowed the Coventry Falcons to steal

0:26:280:26:30

an estimated £500,000 from the accounts of hard-working NHS staff.

0:26:300:26:37

One of those who received a fake call was Kelly.

0:26:370:26:40

She works as a sister on a busy ward.

0:26:400:26:42

I came into work on the ward, as I usually do,

0:26:440:26:47

and then got an urgent phone call.

0:26:470:26:49

His name was Michael

0:26:510:26:52

and he was calling from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

0:26:520:26:55

He knew everything about me.

0:26:550:26:57

He asked me to confirm my last transaction on one of my cards.

0:26:570:27:01

I couldn't remember because I was just so upset and I said,

0:27:010:27:04

"Yes, I think that's a transaction I've made,"

0:27:040:27:07

and he named a shop and the total amount of what the bill was

0:27:070:27:12

on what I know now to be the receipt.

0:27:120:27:15

This fake call had only one purpose -

0:27:150:27:18

to persuade the victim to hand over their PIN.

0:27:180:27:21

To do this, the faker needed to make Kelly panic.

0:27:210:27:24

In reality, your bank will NEVER ask for your PIN,

0:27:240:27:28

either on the phone or via mail or e-mail.

0:27:280:27:32

He said that there was a lady in the Royal Bank of Scotland who

0:27:320:27:36

had gone to the cash desk and had asked to withdraw £1,000 in cash.

0:27:360:27:42

Completely convinced by the caller and anxious to prevent money

0:27:420:27:46

being stolen from her account, Kelly revealed her PIN number.

0:27:460:27:50

Within minutes, the gang were inside an RBS branch,

0:27:500:27:54

emptying her account of just over £2,000.

0:27:540:27:57

Such thefts have left many NHS workers deeply concerned.

0:27:580:28:02

No-one expects to be a victim of fraud in their workplace.

0:28:020:28:06

I felt very alone, like I was the only person in the world that

0:28:060:28:10

something like this had ever happened to.

0:28:100:28:12

Yeah, just really silly that that one time

0:28:120:28:16

I didn't lock the door behind me was the one time that someone came in

0:28:160:28:21

and took my possessions from me and just knew everything about me.

0:28:210:28:26

Like Kelly, many staff also lost possessions they can never replace.

0:28:260:28:31

I lost valuables that day as well.

0:28:310:28:33

I lost valuable photos and just stuff that meant something.

0:28:330:28:39

In total, the gang targeted over 25 hospitals, sometimes returning

0:28:420:28:47

to the same one months later and revisiting on several occasions.

0:28:470:28:52

Later, we'll see how NHS Protect

0:28:560:28:58

and the police caught up with these fakers and put them behind bars.

0:28:580:29:02

You'll see a nurse going through that door, and here he comes now.

0:29:020:29:05

Earlier, we met Jasmine Jones.

0:29:140:29:16

Her Facebook profile had been hacked

0:29:160:29:18

and pictures of her were being used on fake Facebook profiles.

0:29:180:29:22

Some of these profiles were stating that Jasmine was an escort.

0:29:220:29:26

Somebody might see me in the street and think,

0:29:260:29:28

"There's that girl who's an escort," which is

0:29:280:29:30

just a horrible feeling to have, and is the person who's pretending

0:29:300:29:33

to be me, am I looking them in the eye every day?

0:29:330:29:35

Jasmine is still trying to find out WHO created these fake

0:29:350:29:38

Facebook accounts.

0:29:380:29:40

But what's it like when someone close to you fakes your profile?

0:29:400:29:44

There we go.

0:29:440:29:46

Abbie Brown is a single mum from Burnley.

0:29:460:29:49

She's always loved using Facebook.

0:29:490:29:51

I talk to my friends on it every day, socialise through it,

0:29:510:29:56

contact my family through it.

0:29:560:29:58

But last year,

0:29:580:29:59

something strange happened to Abbie's Facebook profile.

0:29:590:30:03

One day, I went to go on it and I couldn't get on it,

0:30:030:30:06

so I reported it and left it as that.

0:30:060:30:09

Abbie didn't hear back from Facebook,

0:30:100:30:12

so she decided to open a new account.

0:30:120:30:14

Shortly afterwards, one of her closest friends since childhood

0:30:150:30:18

asked a favour - could Abbie take delivery of some parcels

0:30:180:30:22

she'd ordered from catalogue companies?

0:30:220:30:24

She told me they were for her partner at the time, for Christmas,

0:30:240:30:27

so I took them in.

0:30:270:30:28

Being a friend, didn't want him to see them,

0:30:280:30:30

and then I took them down to her.

0:30:300:30:32

But the parcels kept on arriving and Abbie started to grow suspicious.

0:30:340:30:39

Then one time, her actual partner picked them up from my house,

0:30:390:30:42

but she told me they were for him, which I thought was a bit strange.

0:30:420:30:45

That's when I started clicking on that something weren't right.

0:30:450:30:48

And Abbie's suspicions grew following a visit from

0:30:480:30:52

a very angry stranger.

0:30:520:30:54

I answered it, "Hiya, you all right?" And then she were like,

0:30:540:30:57

"No, have you got my money?" "What?" "Have you got my money?

0:30:570:31:00

"You know I were turning up to your door."

0:31:000:31:02

And I went, "No, I don't."

0:31:020:31:03

She went, "Well, it's you on Facebook."

0:31:030:31:05

The woman was insistent that she'd purchased goods from Abbie

0:31:060:31:09

through Facebook.

0:31:090:31:10

In fact, Abbie's old Facebook profile, which she

0:31:100:31:13

assumed had been deleted,

0:31:130:31:15

was being used by her friend to advertise products for sale.

0:31:150:31:19

These included clothes, shoes and perfumes.

0:31:190:31:23

Anyone buying these products would, of course,

0:31:230:31:25

think that Abbie was the seller, so when goods weren't delivered,

0:31:250:31:29

customers, like the one who'd just paid Abbie a visit,

0:31:290:31:31

believed that she'd cheated them.

0:31:310:31:34

It was after this visit that Abbie put two and two together

0:31:350:31:39

and realised that her friend was, in fact, the Facebook faker.

0:31:390:31:44

And there was more bad news in the post for Abbie.

0:31:440:31:48

The faker hadn't simply used a fake Facebook profile to advertise

0:31:490:31:53

the goods.

0:31:530:31:54

She'd also purchased those goods by setting up catalogue accounts

0:31:540:31:58

in Abbie's name.

0:31:580:31:59

I had just been getting letters saying I owed,

0:31:590:32:02

like, £300 here and £70 here.

0:32:020:32:05

Especially before Christmas, it's not nice, and I thought,

0:32:050:32:08

"It's going to affect my credit", which it has gone on to my credit.

0:32:080:32:12

And I need to get that lifted.

0:32:120:32:15

Abbie believes part of the reason the faker targeted her is

0:32:160:32:19

because they knew each other so well.

0:32:190:32:21

Now I know that she'd got into my Facebook, used my password,

0:32:210:32:26

cos she knew me that well, she guessed my password.

0:32:260:32:29

She knew everything because I'd talk to her on a daily basis, so

0:32:290:32:33

she knew what I were doing that day and she could put it on Facebook.

0:32:330:32:37

Understandably, Abbie's still coming to terms with what happened.

0:32:370:32:42

I trusted her with all my heart

0:32:420:32:44

and I feel like she had a bit of a kick out of doing it, in a sick way.

0:32:440:32:48

Abbie reported the fraud, only to discover that there was already

0:32:480:32:52

an ongoing police investigation into her former friend's activities.

0:32:520:32:57

Two other targets of the faker had come forward.

0:32:570:33:00

When these two cases came to court,

0:33:000:33:02

the faker pleaded guilty to two charges of false representation.

0:33:020:33:06

Sadly, Abbie's case wasn't reported in time to be

0:33:060:33:09

included in the prosecution.

0:33:090:33:11

However, she did, at least, have the satisfaction of seeing her

0:33:110:33:15

former friend fined and sentenced to 200 hours community service.

0:33:150:33:19

Meanwhile, Abbie's still waiting to find out what happened to her

0:33:190:33:23

old account.

0:33:230:33:24

I don't actually know if it was them that took the Facebook account down

0:33:240:33:28

or she deactivated it cos they've never contacted me through it.

0:33:280:33:32

They've never actually e-mailed me, saying,

0:33:320:33:34

"We have took the Facebook down.

0:33:340:33:37

"We've seen it's been hacked." They never contacted me through anything.

0:33:370:33:40

Abbie's experience reveals the lengths a determined

0:33:410:33:44

Facebook faker will go to in order to get their hands on a fake

0:33:440:33:48

Facebook account.

0:33:480:33:50

So, what can you do to protect your profile?

0:33:500:33:54

Professor Dave Harte lectures on social media

0:33:540:33:57

at Birmingham City University.

0:33:570:33:59

He believes that as Facebook expands its services,

0:33:590:34:02

opportunities for fraudsters will increase.

0:34:020:34:05

Facebook invites you to give it lots of information, beyond the books

0:34:050:34:09

and films you like, down to the cafes where you drink

0:34:090:34:12

and have your lunch, the pubs you go to,

0:34:120:34:17

that geo-tagged location check-in in the street you live in,

0:34:170:34:21

the link to your information from your running watch that tells you

0:34:210:34:24

where you started when you entered your running route,

0:34:240:34:27

which happens to be at your front door - this constant invitation to give information.

0:34:270:34:31

All of that, of course, is brilliant for Facebook,

0:34:310:34:34

but it is also brilliant for a fraudster.

0:34:340:34:36

And Professor Harte has some advice to help you stay safe online

0:34:380:34:42

when using social media like Facebook.

0:34:420:34:45

There are a few things you can do to think about what you're doing on

0:34:470:34:50

Facebook and the extent to which that makes you a target for fraudsters.

0:34:500:34:53

The first of it is, what kind of information

0:34:530:34:56

are you letting Facebook know about you?

0:34:560:34:58

Have you told it where you live?

0:34:580:35:00

How many of your interests are on there?

0:35:000:35:02

How often do you talk about the detail of your family life

0:35:020:35:05

and your relatives?

0:35:050:35:07

If you are telling Facebook and your followers what your dog's name is

0:35:070:35:11

then maybe your dog's name shouldn't be your password.

0:35:110:35:14

Be mindful of the security settings on Facebook, because actually,

0:35:140:35:18

you have a degree of control there, which perhaps you don't realise.

0:35:180:35:22

You can actually stop your profile being public whatsoever.

0:35:220:35:26

Just your updates and information about you,

0:35:260:35:29

just goes to those friends you have chosen.

0:35:290:35:31

Not friends of friends, just friends.

0:35:310:35:33

Facebook told us that while they couldn't comment on individual

0:35:350:35:38

cases, they had actioned reports into the cases we feature.

0:35:380:35:43

They stressed Facebook was a safe

0:35:430:35:45

and secure place with extra security features,

0:35:450:35:47

comprehensive tools for reporting fraud and a team of safety experts.

0:35:470:35:52

They said they encourage people not to share their password with

0:35:520:35:55

others and to protect their accounts using two-factor authentication.

0:35:550:36:01

They added that if you think your account has been compromised, visit

0:36:010:36:04

facebook.com/hacked to secure it as quickly as possible.

0:36:040:36:08

Earlier, we saw how a criminal gang robbed hospital staff

0:36:160:36:19

across the UK, using fake bank calls to get access

0:36:190:36:23

to their accounts and steal their money.

0:36:230:36:25

The gang's combined offences, stretching over four years,

0:36:250:36:29

amount to the largest fraud ever attempted on NHS staff.

0:36:290:36:34

But unbeknown to the gang, their activities were being monitored by

0:36:370:36:40

NHS Protect, the agency responsible for the security of NHS staff.

0:36:400:36:46

Chris MacDonald led the investigation.

0:36:470:36:50

By closely analysing CCTV from hospitals where the gang had struck,

0:36:500:36:54

he believed he had identified the ringleader.

0:36:540:36:58

Adrian Garrick.

0:36:580:37:00

We see a nurse going through to that door.

0:37:000:37:03

She is at the door, she is in and here he comes now, look.

0:37:030:37:07

Very confident, straight in, not bothering to look at anybody.

0:37:070:37:12

He is going to be in there now for less than 50 seconds,

0:37:120:37:14

and he's going to take those three purses in that 50 seconds.

0:37:140:37:17

You notice that the receptionist didn't even look up.

0:37:170:37:20

Here he comes. Again, opens the door, doesn't look at anybody,

0:37:200:37:24

confidently walks off.

0:37:240:37:25

Notice, left hand is in his pocket.

0:37:250:37:27

There will be a car waiting for him right outside.

0:37:280:37:30

He'll jump in and the car will go.

0:37:300:37:32

And it will be about half an hour,

0:37:320:37:33

and the victims of the crime will receive a phone call

0:37:330:37:36

purporting to be from their bank, to get their PIN numbers.

0:37:360:37:38

As Chris was pulling together the CCTV evidence against the Falcons,

0:37:410:37:45

Detective Emma Landucci was just beginning HER investigation into the gang.

0:37:450:37:50

I first heard about the Coventry Falcons from the NHS Protect,

0:37:510:37:55

who contacted me shortly after the offence

0:37:550:38:00

I was investigating at the Lister Hospital took place.

0:38:000:38:03

Detective Landucci had been assigned to look into a break-in at the Lister Hospital.

0:38:030:38:08

It was classic Coventry Falcons.

0:38:080:38:11

The gang had faked their way into off-limits areas,

0:38:110:38:14

posing as staff, and stolen a purse.

0:38:140:38:17

They had then purchased high-value items at a nearby high street

0:38:170:38:21

before heading to the victim's bank,

0:38:210:38:23

but the CCTV filmed in the high street left Detective Landucci

0:38:230:38:27

in no doubt as to who she was looking for.

0:38:270:38:31

It wasn't until I closely examined the CCTV on the offence committed

0:38:310:38:36

at the Lister Hospital,

0:38:360:38:38

and I was able to see that very tiny, grainy image of a black man,

0:38:380:38:44

who I believed to be Adrian Garrick,

0:38:440:38:46

that I was able to start focusing on him.

0:38:460:38:50

And the more Detective Landucci learned, the clearer it became that Garrick was

0:38:510:38:56

the driving force behind the frauds being carried out on NHS staff.

0:38:560:39:01

The gang operated in two or three-man teams.

0:39:010:39:04

One member would play the fake NHS worker, gaining entry to the

0:39:050:39:09

staff-only areas and stealing the wallets or purses.

0:39:090:39:13

The other member of the gang would then go into the bank,

0:39:130:39:16

posing as the real owner of the card.

0:39:160:39:19

Garrick always insisted on being the front man,

0:39:190:39:22

carrying out the actual thefts, and DC Landucci quickly realised why.

0:39:220:39:27

I think he chose this role, because it minimised the risk to himself

0:39:290:39:33

of being caught, and heightened the risk for other gang members.

0:39:330:39:38

Rather than simply building the prosecution around the Lister Hospital case,

0:39:380:39:43

Emma began building a broader national case, which would

0:39:430:39:46

hold Garrick and the gang to account for their fakery at hospitals across the entire country.

0:39:460:39:52

Fortunately, Garrick's preference for being the gang's front man

0:39:530:39:56

made sightings by hospital security teams far more likely.

0:39:560:40:00

His image and that of four other offenders

0:40:000:40:04

had been circulated to all NHS security teams.

0:40:040:40:07

Once Garrick had been identified as a suspect, we became obsessed,

0:40:070:40:12

really, with a description that fitted him.

0:40:120:40:15

On the day in question, Garrick was in one of our administration areas.

0:40:160:40:20

This is where we picked him up on CCTV, walking through corridors,

0:40:200:40:23

trying doors to see whether there was anybody inside or whether there

0:40:230:40:27

was any opportunity for items he found desirable.

0:40:270:40:31

And Dave's team came close to apprehending the fakers.

0:40:310:40:35

We caught up with the Coventry Falcons when they were coming through our south entrance.

0:40:350:40:40

We were probably about 25 or 30 feet behind him at this stage.

0:40:400:40:43

We gave chase through our South Road,

0:40:430:40:45

where there was a car waiting in a lay-by.

0:40:450:40:48

But Garrick's choice of getaway vehicle, a black Golf, gave Emma a vital lead.

0:40:510:40:57

Soon, other NHS security teams had confirmed sightings of both the black Golf and Garrick.

0:40:570:41:04

Garrick was a very clever criminal,

0:41:060:41:08

and he knew that CCTV evidence alone wouldn't be sufficient.

0:41:080:41:13

Then another break in the case.

0:41:130:41:15

West Midlands CID called Detective Landucci.

0:41:150:41:18

They had picked up Garrick and got hold of his phone.

0:41:180:41:22

Now Garrick's actual movements could be mapped to the crimes.

0:41:220:41:25

I did some investigative work on the telephone and I was then able

0:41:250:41:30

to place him travelling from

0:41:300:41:32

Coventry to Stevenage on the day of my offence.

0:41:320:41:36

With this final piece of evidence,

0:41:360:41:39

he was charged with five counts of conspiracy to commit fraud.

0:41:390:41:43

Faced with all of the evidence, he admitted to an additional

0:41:430:41:46

26 offences.

0:41:460:41:48

All of these crimes were committed at NHS hospitals.

0:41:480:41:52

He was sentenced to 3½ years.

0:41:520:41:55

Unusually, Garrick was also served with a court order

0:41:560:41:59

preventing him from entering any hospital, doctor's surgery

0:41:590:42:03

or other health care facility, unless in the case of an emergency.

0:42:030:42:08

Also sentenced with Garrick was Kevin Deacon, who was given

0:42:080:42:12

a 24-month prison sentence for the Lister Hospital offence.

0:42:120:42:17

These convictions immediately made the NHS a safer place to work.

0:42:170:42:21

For the following four months after his arrest,

0:42:210:42:24

we didn't see a single attack on any hospital.

0:42:240:42:27

But the NHS will need to remain vigilant

0:42:280:42:30

if it is to stop these fakers targeting NHS staff in the future.

0:42:300:42:35

While Garrick was clearly a prominent player

0:42:350:42:37

within the Coventry Falcons,

0:42:370:42:39

police believe there are others ready to take his place.

0:42:390:42:43

The gang is believed to number around 100 members.

0:42:430:42:47

While pleased to have secured convictions against Garrick

0:42:470:42:50

and his co-defendants,

0:42:500:42:52

DC Landucci believes the gang remains an ongoing threat to the public.

0:42:520:42:56

I think it will always be a challenge to investigate,

0:42:560:43:00

and that these offences will continue, unfortunately.

0:43:000:43:04

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.

0:43:100:43:12

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