Episode 1 Rip Off Britain

We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling ripped off,

and you contacted us in your thousands.

You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong

and the customer service that's simply not up to scratch.

When you have to call them, it takes ages and somebody else

answers the phone who pretty much doesn't know what you're saying.

The customer is not benefitting,

and, no, I'm not getting value for money.

You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money

and investigate the extra charges you say are unfair.

They don't deserve to be in any form of business whatsoever,

and they just want shutting down.

And when you've lost out but nobody else is to blame,

you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.

They took the money out of my account

and I don't even know who it was that was scamming me.

So, whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake...

We're here to find out why you're out of pocket,

and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money.

This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello, and welcome to Rip-Off Britain where, today,

we're on the trail of the scammers

out to get their hands on your money,

and as we do our best to stop them in their tracks, we'll be taking

a closer look at some of the scams that you tell us about the most.

They can be hard to spot but easy to fall for,

and could leave you thousands of pounds worse off.

And what makes some of them especially cynical

is the way they target people trying to sort out life's necessities,

like finding a place to live or a job,

so as to trick them out of money they can't afford to lose.

But, of course, today's programme isn't just about the people

who've already fallen foul of the fraudsters,

it's about arming you with everything you need to know

to avoid being caught out in the first place.

So, by the end of this programme,

you should know exactly how to spot these particular scams

before handing over a single penny.

Coming up, how ruthless scammers conned this woman

out of tens of thousands of pounds.

I've learnt to trust nobody about anything,

and that's a terrible thing because I always trusted everybody.

And the fake landlords taking cash for properties they don't even own.

I thought to myself, "I've got the key,

"I've handed my money to someone that I can physically see,

"what could go wrong?"

Now, so many of the scams we feature in this programme

start with a phone call right out of the blue,

and whether they're trying to talk you into an offer

that you apparently can't refuse

or claiming to be from your bank with worries about your account,

the only way they're going to succeed

is if they can convince you that their story,

however far-fetched, is 100% genuine.

Well, I'm afraid the fraudsters we're going to hear about

were so good at doing that

that their elaborate lies allowed them

to walk away with tens of thousands of pounds of one woman's money,

along with a big chunk of her independence, as well.

PHONE RINGS

Hi, Mrs Bell, my name's Kevin. I'm calling from your bank.

There's been some unusual activity on your account.

We've become wise to scammers calling up and pretending to be

from our banks, saying anything to convince us that they're actually

trying to protect our money.

Please don't worry at all.

We can make sure that the rest of your money is safe.

We will move it into a new account for you right now.

So, last year, we reported how fraudsters

may now try a different tack,

and when they call, they claim to be from the police.

This guy was saying that he's a serious fraud officer

and they were working with the bank.

And that same tactic was at the heart of the scam

that's conned 84-year-old Joyce Smith out of her life savings.

But this time, the criminals went one further and convinced her

that her own banks were in on the con.

I thought I was talking to the police and I believed them.

And I've always considered the police trustworthy.

Joyce normally hangs up the occasional cold call

that she receives, and, indeed, that's just what she did

when she had one in May 2016,

little knowing that it would instantly be followed by another.

I received a call out of the blue asking me if I had sent

for certain things on my computer.

I said, "No," and put the phone down.

But it then rang and they said they were from the fraud squad.

This caller told Joyce that fraudsters were actually working

inside her local branches of Barclays and NatWest,

and taking money from customers' accounts.

And, of course, he wanted to keep her money

out of the fraudsters' hands.

And I asked him where he was speaking from,

and he said he belonged to the fraud squad.

I didn't want to lose money, so I believed what he said.

The caller then said that he needed to transfer her to a colleague

in perhaps the most famous police station in the country.

He said that he was now going to pass me on to Sergeant Jackson

who was from Scotland Yard.

This so-called Sergeant Jackson told Joyce the police had set up

safe accounts in her name, all ready to protect her money,

but she'd need to visit her banks to make the transfers.

They gave me these account numbers and, "Would I go to the bank

"and put this money into these accounts now?"

By that time, I was getting very worried, and he said,

"As soon as this is over, we shall put the money back

"where it was before."

Sergeant Jackson told Joyce to keep all of this secret

so the criminals who infiltrated the banks wouldn't find out

that they were being watched.

So, convinced that she was actually helping the police catch the crooks

red-handed, the next morning, she got ready to go to the banks

as she'd been asked to do.

They wanted to know when I left the house,

how long I was going to be to get to the bank,

then they could switch the cameras on at the bank and catch the people

who were doing all the fiddling.

That's what they said.

Calling at her local Barclays branch first,

Joyce transferred nearly ?26,000 to the account numbers

that she'd been given over the phone.

When I went to Barclays, the young boy knew me from putting money in,

and when I took it out, he just brought a form for me to fill in.

Then, at NatWest, Joyce transferred another ?6,000.

She didn't ask me any questions whatsoever,

and it was a very large amount.

I thought the people at the bank might be the criminals

and that's why they didn't ask me.

Of course, the fake police on the phone had given her very clear

instructions to make sure she didn't jeopardise their investigation.

They said that I wasn't even to tell any family

because they were going to make an arrest,

and if I told, they couldn't make the arrest.

Joyce went home and, reassured that her money was safe,

she thought nothing of going on holiday as she'd planned for months.

While she was away, both her banks did try to get hold of her

to query the huge sums that she'd asked to be transferred.

When she didn't answer their calls,

the transfers totalling almost ?32,000 went through automatically.

And the scammers didn't stop there.

When Joyce came back from her holiday,

the fraudsters were on the phone again,

telling her that yet more of her savings were at risk.

So, the whole scenario repeated itself and Joyce once again went

to her local branch of NatWest where she transferred a further ?58,000.

This time, there was so much money at stake,

Joyce started to question whether her money really was safe.

I began to really worry about it,

but I still didn't say anything to anybody.

But overnight, Joyce became more concerned, and the next morning,

she tracked down and called the number for the real Scotland Yard,

and it was when she asked to speak to the Sergeant Jackson

she'd been dealing with that the truth was finally revealed.

I got through to Scotland Yard

and asked them did they know these people?

And they said they'd never heard of them.

Well, then I was really getting worried.

Very, very worried. But it was too late.

Joyce realised that she'd fallen victim to an intricate scam

and had been persuaded to transfer a total of ?90,000

straight into the hands of the criminals.

Within hours, Scotland Yard sent officers from Northumbria Police

to her home to investigate.

Joyce's daughter Jane, meanwhile,

had several times tried calling her mum the previous day

but failed to get through, not knowing, of course,

that the fraudsters had been keeping Joyce on the phone.

I said, "Why have I not been able to get hold of you?"

And she said, "I've been on the phone.

"I can't tell you."

I said, "What do you mean you can't tell me?"

She said, "It's a secret."

I said, "What sort of secret?

"I'm your daughter. You have to tell me."

She said, "Well, it's the police."

So, I went immediately over to her house

and there was an officer there,

and that's when I found out all this scamming had begun.

Jane was totally horrified to discover

how her mother had been conned.

My mother, at that point, was so distraught,

and actually still is so distraught,

that she could not even tell us what money she had transferred.

We took my mother to the two banks and we went through everything with

the police officer there, and that's where we found the full extent.

As the scam was discussed with the banks, it became clear that staff

had been concerned by Joyce's unusual behaviour,

but not enough to raise the alarm.

When I went with the police to the bank to find out what had happened,

the woman teller was in tears.

And she said to me, "I thought there was something strange,

"but your mother is so sensible with money, I didn't like to ask."

And my mother also was uncommonly aggressive with her

because she thought she was one of the scammers.

The police have been able to retrieve about ?13,000

of Joyce's savings,

but that means the fraudsters have pocketed ?77,000,

and it's money that she'd carefully saved all her life.

It was not money I could afford to lose.

If I have to go into a home, there was money there.

If I need a new roof, there was money there.

And so, it was my...

my safeguard.

On top of this awful financial loss,

all of this has had a big impact on Joyce's confidence, as well.

I'll never feel safe again.

It's completely altered my life. Completely.

To try and make sure that her mum doesn't fall victim to anything

like this again, Jane has even investigated whether she can be made

a counter-signatory to some of her mum's bigger spending decisions.

But the only way to do that would be if she countersigned

every transaction, something she's unwilling to do.

I can't ask my mother to do that.

She has to be able to look after herself and have her independence,

which she's always had.

Detective Inspector Angela Hufton is the genuine police officer

who oversaw the investigation into Joyce's case.

In cases such as this, time really is of the essence.

The fraudsters operate extremely quickly,

and in many cases, if not all,

as soon as the victim has transferred the money,

the same day, if not immediately after,

the fraudster will withdraw the money,

so it's often very difficult for us to recover it.

So, to avoid things getting to that stage,

the police's advice is simple.

As soon as anyone who's called you out of the blue starts asking for

your personal details, however important they say they are,

just hang up.

A police officer will never, ever contact a member of the public

and ask them to transfer money from their bank account to another.

We've had reported cases in Northumbria where the fraudsters

have contacted the victim and not only

purported to be a police officer,

but have also purported to be an official from another organisation

such as Trading Standards.

Because Joyce made the transfers

into the fraudulent accounts herself,

neither of the banks is obliged to refund the lost money.

When we contacted Barclays and NatWest,

both expressed their sympathies for what had happened,

with Barclays stressing that

Joyce WAS questioned about the transaction,

but the staff were satisfied with the response she gave

as to where the money was going and why.

Barclays added that all their staff are trained to ask more questions

regarding suspicious transactions, but it's...

NatWest reiterated that...

Adding that if you suspect a fraud is taking place, you should...

Meanwhile, Joyce is becoming resigned to the loss of her savings,

but the effects of this particularly nasty scam will last forever.

I've learnt to trust nobody about anything.

And that's a terrible thing because I always trusted everybody.

Now I trust nobody.

Over the last decade or so, thanks to rising property prices,

more people than ever before have turned to renting

rather than owning their home.

Now, that's made the rentals market fast-moving and competitive,

but also, I'm sorry to say, very appealing indeed

to unscrupulous fraudsters preying on those tenants who are desperate

to secure the property that they really want.

Now, we've looked into some of these rental scams before, but it does now

seem as though there are more of them than ever and that the people

behind them are very good at covering their tracks.

It's a simple but audacious scam -

a fraudster places an ad to rent a house or a flat that they don't own,

perhaps even going as far as to show prospective tenants around.

They'll promise it's yours providing you pay a cash deposit quickly.

But when the day comes to move in,

it turns out that someone else is already living there,

and that so-called owner has disappeared with your money.

Rental fraud like this has risen over 33% in England and Wales,

and among those targeted are people moving to the UK from abroad

who may not be aware of the signs that an ad could be a fake.

Originally from Cameroon, Debra Azange moved to the UK in 2015

to study advanced nursing at Luton University.

It was quite stressful. Really stressful.

I was really anxious about moving, coming to the UK,

a place I've never been before.

I didn't even know how to go to the shops to buy things.

Debra's brother Divine had been living in the UK for five years,

so he was able to help her settle in and look for a place of her own.

And, after searching online,

they saw an ad for a place that looked ideal.

This particular property was five minutes away from her university.

Two people sharing, you know, in one flat, so it's not overcrowded.

?300 in that area of town wasn't too bad.

With the flat ticking all the boxes, Divine and Debra arranged a viewing.

But as soon as they got through the front door, it was clear that

what they were seeing was not the flat they'd seen online.

It did not look like what the picture said.

The guy explained to us that this was what was available,

he had a couple of properties, and, you know,

we thought it was quite legit.

The man showing them around said he must have mixed up the photos

of this flat with another one that he owned,

but in any case, it was this one that he had available.

And with other viewings booked for later that day, if Debra wanted it,

she'd have to pay the deposit right away.

Divine lent his sister the cash and the person they thought

was the landlord immediately handed Debra a key,

telling her to come back in two days' time to sign the contract

and move in. It all seemed to be going very smoothly.

I thought to myself, "?200, you know, I've got the key, you know,

"I've handed my money to someone that I can physically see,

"what could go wrong?"

Sadly, quite a lot, because when Debra tried to fix an exact time

to sign the contract and move in,

the man who'd claimed he was the landlord couldn't be found.

I kept calling and the phone rang and rang and he didn't pick up.

My brother told me not to worry about it, and I left it.

In the evening, I called again,

I sent a voicemail and I thought he was going to reply but he didn't.

With no answer, Debra and Divine went to the flat

to see if they could find anyone there to help.

I came and I walked to the property.

I knocked at the door and I didn't get any response.

I tried the key and it didn't work.

Then I was like, "Am I in the wrong place?"

I tried to call the landlord and tried and tried, but to no avail.

Debra and Divine never heard from the so-called landlord again.

He ignored their further calls

and it was clear that he'd made off with that ?200 deposit.

Although how he got access to the flat in the first place

remains unclear.

Divine reported what had happened to both the police and Action Fraud,

but has had to accept that the money is lost.

I really do feel for my sister, you know, for her first experience

in the UK to fall prey to that kind of scammer.

You know, we cut our losses,

you know, we found somewhere else and we got over it.

You know, we moved on.

But rental fraudsters don't just prey on unsuspecting tenants

to make their money.

They can take advantage of genuine landlords, too,

as Darian Day discovered last year.

Wow, this is a lovely sitting room.

Lovely, big room. Nice, big window.

Darian owns this London flat

and rents it out for short breaks through a property website.

But without her knowing anything about it,

someone else had been advertising her flat,

offering it to rent long-term. Darian only discovered the fraud

when she was e-mailed out of the blue

by someone called Shelly who'd been talking to the fake landlord

about renting the flat when she moved to London from Paris.

She got very excited about it and was trying to rent it.

But I think, over the course of her correspondence with the "landlord",

she became a little worried.

Shelly had smelt a rat when the man she was dealing with

wouldn't let her visit the property before paying a deposit.

So, she got suspicious?

She got suspicious and her boss, actually,

in Paris said, "You can do this thing called

"a Google image reverse search."

A reverse image search means you can click on a picture

you see online and find any other web page that uses the same image.

So, when Shelly searched for other photos of the flat,

she was sent straight to Darian's own web page.

It became very clear to her that, actually, this is a holiday let,

not a long-term let. So, she wrote to me saying she was

terribly disappointed, but I guess this is not for let,

and I said, "No, sorry."

But it alerted you to the fact that someone was trying to scam

other people, using your flat as a portal for it.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Incensed that someone was using photos of her flat

to try and trick people out of money,

Darian turned detective to try and catch the fake landlord out.

She e-mailed him posing as a prospective tenant.

So, I wrote to him in my husband's name,

saying that I'd seen the flat advertised and that I loved it,

and I assured him I would be a very good tenant and treat the flat

as if it was my own. Which it is, of course.

Which, of course, it is.

'The fake landlord got back to Darian the same day,

'explaining that the flat was available

'and setting out the cost of the rent and deposit.

'Keen to reel him in,

'Darian responded saying she was keen to secure the flat

'and move in as soon as possible.

'But at this point, it became clear that,

'before any kind of meeting in person,

'the scammer was determined to get his cash up front.'

He explained that he was busy working in Inverness,

so he couldn't actually show me the flat.

Get all the way down to London. Exactly, but then he did write

and say, if I was interested,

he would be willing to fly to London.

But before he flew to London,

he needed to know I wasn't a time-waster,

so I had to pay him a deposit.

How much was that? ?2,000.

And not only did he do that, he actually then sent me bank details.

So, you had a link with a bank that was supposed to be taking these,

let's be frank about this, ill-gotten gains?

Absolutely.

So, then, I got quite excited cos I thought, "Well, now I have him

"because now he's given me a bank in England."

I checked the sort code, I checked where the bank was,

and, indeed, it is a bank - it's in Ilford in Essex -

and I spoke to them and explained the story to them,

and they said, of course, with data protection,

there was nothing they could do about it.

'So, that's when Darian came to us. After hearing her story,'

we looked into the person claiming to own her flat,

who called himself Curtis Owst,

and we found the same name on ads for five other rental properties

in London. So, we decided to test one out,

just as Darian had, and when Mr Owst e-mailed us back,

we got a similar story to the one he'd sent her.

He said he couldn't show us the flat because he was nine hours away,

although, in fact, the place where he claimed to be is only about

one hour's drive from London.

And he asked us to send an upfront deposit of ?1,000,

transferred by Western Union.

Of course, we did no such thing and instead wrote back explaining

who we really were, and we've not heard anything from him since.

But with fraudsters' tactics getting ever more convincing,

not least by copying legitimate rental sites,

how can you tell the difference between a genuine ad

and one that's a fake?

Well, here's a man who's going to make that clear -

Albin Serviant runs a rental site called easyroommate.com.

He's got an entire team dedicated to weeding out scam ads,

and every month, it stops around 2,500 fraudulent ones being posted.

Nothing goes live without a moderation process.

We have some tricks to spot the scammers,

and we have 15 people who are just dedicated

at looking at 100% of the ads.

There are a number of clues that an advert might be fake -

if it's too cheap for the area, for example,

or it looks luxurious but comes with a tiny price tag.

If it says nothing about your potential flatmates, again,

approach with caution.

And watch out for bizarre excuses.

I don't live in the country. Sorry, there is no viewing possible.

So, that's an alert.

Now, I think I can tell a real advert from a fake,

but Albin's going to put that to the test.

He's showing me four different ads, all intended for his website,

but which ones got through?

So, we've got one here, which is...

There's a pretty full description of what it's like.

"Please tell me about yourself, how long you would like to stay,

"when you can come for a view."

I would think that was a genuine one, then,

inviting you to look at it. The second one, pretty central.

Very central.

Near a good street. They're all a bit random, these photographs,

aren't they? Who lives there?

One male, 18 years old, student.

Everyone welcome.

That doesn't strike me as being too genuine.

All right, next one.

OK. Nice area of Islington.

Flatmates unknown.

Everyone welcome.

All bills included.

Don't think so. The last one?

And the last one, ?650 per calendar month,

two bedroom, two bathroom.

Flatmates unknown again.

Everyone welcome.

I think the first one was genuine.

I don't think the second two were, but I'm not sure about that one.

How did I do? Yeah, you've done very well.

Have I? Yeah, quite.

On the second one, it's a genuine one.

Is it? It is, yes.

This one, you know, it's close to...

Oh, close to the Queen, close to Buckingham Palace.

And it's only ?650 a calendar month.

Exactly. I'm not sure it's in Buckingham.

It's not in Buckingham Palace!

Scammers targeting someone moving from abroad

or who doesn't know the area

will often make their ads more tempting by suggesting that

a property is near a famous landmark or desirable part of town.

And even on the most rigorous sites,

a tiny proportion of fake ads will still make it through.

So, Albin has one golden rule to help you hold on to your money.

You need to be able to view the flat, to visit the flat,

and obviously, you don't pay a deposit,

you don't wire the money before visiting the flat.

That's the basic rule.

If you're searching for a new place to rent online, do it with caution.

As for Debra, well, even viewing the flat wasn't enough

to stop her from being scammed,

but she's determined that it won't happen again.

In the future, I'm going to be very careful.

I'll make sure I get documentation.

Then I have proof of any transactions I've made with anyone.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, the scam e-mails convincing enough

to trick any of us into handing over our cash.

To say I felt devastated doesn't really cover it because...

..it was something that I had done.

Ever year, we open up Rip-Off Britain's pop-up shop,

a one-stop advice clinic for anyone who wants to drop in.

Felt great, Angela. THEY LAUGH

Whether they've a specific dilemma they need help with...

I've been having some problems returning my son's watch.

..or are just after some tips

to make sure they're getting the best deal...

We're really happy the BBC put this service forward to us. It's great.

I think more people should use it. It's really good.

It's a perfect opportunity to catch up with as many of you as we can so

we can make sure we're investigating the topics that affect you the most.

Promise you'll keep watching.

Oh, I'll keep watching. I definitely will.

When Maya called in to see our technology whizz David McClelland,

it was too late to put the situation right,

but we hope her story means that

no-one else gets caught the same way.

David, this is Maya,

and Maya's got a problem with an online course that she took.

'Maya was looking for a new job, and an online course

'to train as a private investigator caught her eye.

'The company promised guaranteed work at the end of it,

'so she was keen to find out more.'

I thought, "Oh, well, I will enquire."

And they sent me back a message which says, "Hi, Maya.

"I have sent you an e-mail re your job offer..."

'The course came with a hefty ?500 price tag,

'but after being told she could pay in instalments,

'Maya signed up and she sailed through the modules.'

So, I passed the course and then they said they will send my ID.

'The ID was to register Maya as a private investigator,

'her passport to the job it now appeared she was qualified to do,

'but it didn't arrive as promised.'

So, I sent multiple e-mails to them,

I rang, I left multiple voice messages.

'But after weeks of chasing, the penny dropped.'

I just thought, "Oh, my God," and then I did some internet research

and it just became more and more dodgy.

'Maya realised she'd been scammed and quickly called her bank

'to cancel the payments to the company,

'but by this point, she was already ?300 out of pocket.'

I just thought, "Oh, my God,"

because I am so trustworthy a person, I just trust people.

'It's a story David's heard time and time again.'

The internet is not a place for trusting people so much anyway

because people will take you in,

they will try and get your confidence and take money from you.

'David has checked out the company himself

'and it's confirmed his suspicions.'

They started business May 2014.

Less than 18 months later, they are no longer in business any more.

But in that short period of time, really, they've taken in

an awful lot of people, and you've had no work out of this. No.

You know, what you were promised when you signed up for this... Yes.

..hasn't been delivered.

'Maya's reported her case to the police via Action Fraud,

'but David's not hopeful.'

I can't say whether you'll get any of your money back,

but hopefully, nobody else will lose their money as a result of this.

Yeah, I just think it's important

for people to kind of realise how much scam...

Well, this is what this programme's about.

It's about putting the word out. OK, thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Maya. Bye. Bye-bye.

And over our two days in Manchester, you told our experts about

plenty of other scams to watch out for, as well.

Hi, Sylvia. Hello.

Hello. You seem to have had a crowd round you most of the day.

Isn't that rewarding?

It is, but it's also the reassurance we give people.

People sometimes feel stupid that they've been conned,

and the point about fraud and scams is that you're not stupid -

they know what they're doing, the scammers.

So, the reassurance when people realise they're not alone,

and that is good, and it's lovely to talk to people face-to-face.

Meanwhile, in our gripe corner,

keeping your details safe from scammers.

The thing that annoys me the most is when you get the calls

coming through claiming that your computer is running slow.

I hate it how the computers are not protecting us enough.

We always get viruses.

People can just connect to the bank account.

They should protect us a bit more.

You know full well that there's probably not a problem

with your computer.

You'll find plenty of advice to help you avoid getting scammed online

on our website...

You know, it seems like only yesterday

that the sort of scam e-mails that were popping into our inboxes

were the ones purporting to be from, for instance, an African prince

who had a million dollars that he needed to transfer

into a British bank account.

How many of us got that one?

But the fraudsters have come a long way since then and,

while over the years, we've certainly tried to keep you abreast

of their latest techniques, and also highlighted the telltale signs

to distinguish between a real and a fake message,

unfortunately, those telltale signs are getting much harder to spot.

But don't worry, because they may be full of ingenious new ideas,

but we're not about to let the scammers win,

so get ready for everything that you need to know to make sure that,

however convincing their latest tactics might be,

it won't be you that's taken in.

Now, would you be able to tell which of these e-mails is real

and which is fake?

Both look the real deal, but only one is genuine.

I'm not quite sure on that.

No, I'm not sure at all, really.

Erm, is that one fake?

But as scam e-mails become more convincing than ever,

you may not instantly be able to tell if something is not right,

and if you fall for one that turns out to be fake,

it could start a chain of events

that ends up costing you a lot of money,

as, unfortunately, was the case for record label manager Sarah Fisher

and her husband David.

I have a busy job, I manage lots of budgets, money,

hundreds of e-mails a day. You know, I have to stay on top of things.

The couple were adding a major extension

to their North London home,

and had agreed to pay the builder in instalments.

We knew it was a big building job,

so we made arrangements to move out for eight months and we had

a schedule of works and a finance plan through that with our builders.

The build began in July 2015,

and the builder's accountant e-mailed them an invoice

every four to six weeks, which they promptly paid.

But when October's invoice arrived, totalling nearly ?27,500,

Sarah was tied up at work, so it sat in her inbox for a few days.

When she got round to paying it the following weekend,

she noticed another e-mail from the firm's accountant,

advising her that the company's bank details had changed

and asking her to make this latest payment into a new account.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary about the e-mail at all.

The e-mail signatures were exactly correct and in the right place,

the conversational tone was very familiar to us.

It read and felt exactly like an e-mail

we were used to seeing from her.

Sarah transferred ?25,000 - the most her bank would allow in one day.

But a few days later, before she'd had a chance to pay the rest,

she was surprised to see that the builder's accountant

had e-mailed again, chasing the full ?27,500.

My head was just saying, "No, no, no, this isn't right.

"It can't be right."

Sarah immediately rang to explain she'd already paid ?25,000

and the balance would be transferred later that day

to the company's new account.

But when the accountant told her there was no new account,

the penny dropped -

she'd been scammed into paying the money to someone else.

My mind was going out of control. I thought,

"I've got to solve this so I can work it out and just get

"my money back and get on with my life." I just needed to fix it.

The couple first called their bank, then the bank into which

the money had been paid, and finally, the police.

Like her, all were initially baffled because the e-mail that

she'd received with the new bank details did seem genuine,

and identical to the accountant's other e-mails.

But finally, one tiny difference was spotted between them -

the second e-mail address was missing one "s".

It actually took 24 hours for anyone to even notice that,

so for that period of 24 hours, it didn't look like fraud.

It seems that somehow fraudsters had been able to hack into the e-mails

of either Sarah or the building company,

and they'd then set up a very similar e-mail address

so that Sarah didn't notice that anything was amiss

when she received the fatal message with those new bank details.

But by the time the truth became clear,

the couple's ?25,000 had already left the fraudster's account.

To say I felt devastated doesn't really cover it because...

..it's something that I had done.

It wasn't that someone had just come into our bank account

and taken money.

I'd been party to transferring this cash.

I hadn't checked.

I hadn't called the building company to make sure they had changed

their bank account details.

Unable to get any of their money back,

Sarah and David have been left ?25,000 out of pocket,

and their unfinished extension is a constant reminder

of one simple but understandable mistake.

It doesn't take a genius to be able to lay some logos on an e-mail

in a particular way. It doesn't take a genius

to adopt somebody's conversational tone.

Now I see how simple it is to do it,

I actually don't think it's that complex a crime.

It was actually very, very simple.

You know, if someone has access to your communication,

they can learn a lot very quickly.

As Sarah discovered,

those once blindingly obvious fake e-mails can, these days,

be almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing,

which, of course, is what the criminals behind them rely on

to get the money they're set on stealing from their victims.

Indeed, so plausible have they become that even

the savviest among us, with years of experience of spotting a scam,

may well be fooled.

It very nearly happened to our own personal finance expert,

Sarah Pennells.

You also have been very nearly caught out, haven't you?

I have. I was actually writing an article about financial fraud

and I was talking to a fraud expert,

and about 40 minutes before I spoke to him,

I had an e-mail from one of the social media networking accounts

I have, asking me to reset my password.

And, again, I almost clicked on it because it looked so genuine.

It had addressed me personally and it looked official,

and I came really, really close,

and at the last minute, I didn't click on it,

and when I spoke to this chap a bit later on, he told me he'd sent it.

He'd been trying to catch you out?

Yeah. And he said he was doing no more or no less

than a fraudster would do.

If I came that close to clicking on an e-mail,

which would have asked for my personal details,

then, frankly, what about other people who are online less

and maybe not quite as cynical as me?

Now, in the past, we've always recommended that checking

the sender's address is a good way to see if an e-mail has really come

from whoever appears to be sending it.

But even that's no longer foolproof.

Sarah's recently had some suspicious e-mails that pass that test,

like this one, which you really would think

came from a well-known bank.

If you sort of hover over the e-mail address,

so you can check where it's coming from,

it's actually got an address that looks like it could be plausible.

It just demonstrates yet again how very cautious we all have to be.

I think that's absolutely right. These e-mails are so sophisticated

and they can seem to come from companies that you do have

a genuine relationship with.

They can know stuff about you - they may know your name,

they may include your address, but that is not enough.

That shouldn't convince you that it's from the company.

In 2015, Action Fraud received 8,000 reports

of so-called phishing e-mails like this every month,

many of them from people who'd fallen for the scam

behind the phony message.

So, while we all know to be on our guard,

as digital forensic specialist Keith Cottenden knows,

that's not as simple as it used to be.

The traditional phishing e-mail scam was always, back in the day,

easy to spot.

English was usually appalling,

it was full of spelling and grammatical errors,

and quite obviously, just by its design,

a phishing e-mail trying to get details -

valuable details - about the user.

But they have become more sophisticated.

Even so, Keith believes the telltale signs that an e-mail

shouldn't be trusted are still there.

So, to find out if people know what to look for,

he's showing some real and fake e-mails to shoppers in Manchester,

and we'll see if they can tell which is which.

I think I'd say that was genuine.

Sorry, you think...? That one. That one's genuine?

I think I'd go for that one. You think that one.

So, we've got a difference of opinion.

OK, well, only one of them is genuine

and I can tell you it's that one that's the genuine one.

In this type of e-mail,

it would never be addressed so generically like that.

Out of the two, I think that's more genuine than that one.

OK, and can I ask why you think that?

Well, only because, "Confirm your account information

"within one hours". That tends to put me off

that somebody would want the information within one hour.

Yeah, absolutely. Spot-on.

Can I ask you why you chose that one?

This just sounds quite informal, whereas the other one's...

It just sounds more professional, I suppose.

Yes, that is the fake e-mail message,

and they're absolutely correct reasons.

The shoppers that Keith spoke to clearly had their eye on the ball,

as 10 out of 12 got it right.

You're quite correct, this is a fake e-mail.

But they had been told that some of these were not genuine,

so they were already on the lookout for signs,

which Keith says just is not the way that most of us will typically

approach our e-mails.

So, the best way to avoid being caught out is to check any request

for money, especially to an account that you haven't used before.

Query anything that is asking for payment by e-mail.

E-mail is not secure, yeah?

And even if you use a secure e-mail,

it doesn't mean that the supplier is using a secure e-mail.

So, conduct financial transactions by other means.

Of course, Sarah wishes that she'd made a call to check the message

that she received, but with her money gone for good,

she'll never take any e-mail she receives at face value again.

The bottom line of it is that ?25,000 is gone.

It makes me very angry.

If you've got a story you'd like us to investigate,

then you can get in touch with us via our Facebook page -

BBC Rip Off Britain,

our website - that's bbc.co.uk/ripoffbritain,

or, if you'd like to send us an e-mail, our address is...

And, of course, you can send a letter to our postal address...

You know, very often in this series,

someone who features in one of our films

will at least get some of the money back

or have their situation resolved.

But one of the reasons why we all hate these scams so much is that,

most of the time, the people caught out by them will never,

ever see a penny of their cash ever again.

Which makes it all the more important

that the rest of us keep our guard up

and learn from what happened in such situations

so that we don't come a cropper in the same way.

And it's why we're so grateful to all the people who are prepared

to share their experiences with us.

Absolutely, because we may not be able to get their money back

from the scammers, but what we can do

is make sure that some good comes out of their stories,

so that you can be sure that we will always be keeping an eye

on the very latest scams,

and telling you about them as soon as we possibly can.

For now, though, I'm afraid we've just run out of time, but as always,

thanks for joining us and, until the next time, bye-bye.

Bye. Bye.