Episode 1 Rip Off Britain

We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling

totally ripped off and you contacted us in your thousands.

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

and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.

It would seem that once they've got your money,

they're not particularly interested in coming back to you

or to give you satisfactory customer service.

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

investigate the extra charges that you say are unfair.

I think prices are going up

and no-one's actually doing anything to improve that.

And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame,

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

You just get to the point, it's, "No, leave me alone!"

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 thank you so much for joining us once again

on Rip-Off Britain,

where today's programme is all about the financial institutions

that we trust to keep our money safe.

That's right, we're talking about the banks.

Now, of course I have

my own strong views and doubts on this particular one,

but are they really doing everything they can to keep our money safe,

which, in the end, is the very basis of what they are about?

You'd think it would be, wouldn't you?

But you'll see just why we're asking that question

when you hear what happened to

some of the people who are going to be sharing their stories with us,

and though they each had money stolen from them

in very different ways,

what their experiences have in common is that their faith

in the banks and where they keep their money

has been understandably very severely shaken.

And when you think that these huge institutions are

some of the richest on the planet,

you'd certainly expect them to pull out all the stops to keep

one step ahead of the fraudsters, wouldn't you?

So, as we investigate how safe your money is,

we'll be asking just what is being done to make sure

that next time a criminal finds a way to steal someone's money,

the account they plunder isn't yours.

Coming up, how some very familiar faces

have had their bank accounts raided by crooks in the same way as mine.

I got a phone call from somebody saying that,

"I can tell you now that your bank account is going to be

"hacked into on Monday morning."

And how thousands of customers of the same bank

woke up to discover their money had been targeted as well.

So, could more have been done to keep it all secure?

I still don't really know what they've done to fix it.

Have they made anything better?

Have they made sure it won't happen again?

Nobody's told me anything.

Now, even after hearing so many of the shocking experiences

you write to us about here at Rip-Off Britain,

it never ceases to amaze me just how cunning and determined

a criminal can be in order to get their hands on your money.

Now, whether it's stealing somebody else's ID,

hacking into e-mails or pretending to be from the police

or indeed your bank, the level of deception in some of these crimes

really is astounding. But sometimes,

it's the simplest of frauds that can fool unwitting people into handing

over huge sums of money.

And you may recall not so long ago,

it only took some fake ID and four people to convince

bank staff to hand over my own savings to criminals.

So, let me reintroduce you to the woman who,

along with three other people, waltzed into my bank

pretending to be me.

And this is one of her accomplices, who took on the role of my daughter.

Very sadly for me, my Caron passed away 13 years ago,

and I hope that this woman doesn't look anything like me.

But that didn't stop them from stealing my name,

my identity and £120,000 from my bank account.

And, to add insult to injury, they're still on the run.

Do you recognise either of those women? Or the signature?

Please call now if you do.

I was very hopeful that an appeal on BBC's Crimewatch programme

might help to catch them.

First feeling is really a shock.

Then anger. Questions start

when you think your money is safe and locked away,

that actually it isn't.

In my case, this woman and her partners in crime

simply walked into a branch of Santander and then,

using a counterfeit driving licence in my name,

persuaded a staff member that her fake grandson

should be a co-signatory on my account.

But you know, what really frightens me is that, since then,

it's become clear that this was by no means a one-off.

Indeed, something very similar happened to a good pal of mine,

Eamonn Holmes.

He's been a TV presenter for over 20 years

and his face is known to millions of people right across the UK.

Even so, this man, John Cartmill, who I'm sure you'll agree

is hardly what you'd call a dead ringer for Eamonn,

was able to impersonate him and reportedly spend

tens of thousands of pounds on his debit card.

And I'm afraid he didn't stop there.

He also targeted BBC Radio 5 live presenter Stephen Nolan,

managing to run up £22,000 on credit cards in his name.

Well, Cartmill's crime spree came to an end in 2014

when he was caught and given a suspended sentence.

And later, he found himself going face-to-face

with one of his victims for a TV programme.

I did do wrong. I do apologise.

Well, in my case, although the boy impersonating my grandson

and another accomplice were caught and prosecuted,

the fact that the woman who impersonated me

and my alleged daughter

have so far still not been caught really disturbs me.

But it seems there are plenty of other situations

where bank staff have simply been hoodwinked into handing over

cash from customers' accounts.

I've come to Gloucestershire to meet another high-profile victim,

professional jockey Andrew Thornton.

He's had an incredible career in horse racing

and last year joined the ranks of a very exclusive group

who've all ridden more than a thousand winners.

But unfortunately, it's an experience much less positive

that I've come to discuss with him.

So, Andrew, in your case, what happened?

I got a phone call from a bank in Cheltenham and they told me

that I'd missed a bank appointment.

I'd never made one, I'd never been at Cheltenham before.

That just suddenly rang alarm bells,

so I got in touch with my bank and said what had happened,

and found out that I had £10,000 taken out.

In one fell swoop?

No, it was in instalments, £350, £750, each time over the counter,

somebody impersonating a jockey and pretending to be me.

So, what did you find out?

What did they provide as security in order to get the money?

Well, the person had gone in originally

and said that he'd lost his bank card,

could he make an appointment to get another one?

So, then they thought, obviously, that's legit,

and then he was able to give identity over the counter,

and then that's how he was able to get the money out.

Did it make you feel angry?

Angry, frustrated.

It's the hassle.

It's just...

you know, difficult to think that in this day and age,

you can't put your money and have faith in the banks

and they're going to look after it.

And Andrew is one of over 30 jockeys and trainers who have been targeted

in this way, leading the Professional Jockeys Association

to advise its members to leave high-street banks altogether.

And Andrew's case had one final and very surprising twist.

Before yet more money could be taken from his account,

he received a tip-off from one of the people involved,

warning of what was about to happen.

I got a phone call from somebody saying that my account was going to

get hacked into, another account was going to get hacked into.

So, the actual hacker or somebody who knew the hacker...

He said that he was a hacker and he said,

"I respect what you do for a business,

"I respect all of your colleagues, what they do for a business,

"but I can tell you now that your bank account is going to be

"hacked into on Monday morning.

"Please, go to your bank straight away,

"tell them what's happening, shut everything down.

"Just make sure that we can't get any more money out.

"That's the only way you will stop us doing what we're doing."

I've dealt with a lot of scams

and I've thought endlessly about my own

and I have never heard a story where somebody involved in the scam

actually rings you up and says,

"By the way, your account's going to be scammed tomorrow."

That is highly unusual.

Well, it's something surreal.

Totally, and, as a result,

Andrew was able to stop the fraudsters

from raiding his account yet again,

and his bank refunded the £10,000 stolen the first time around.

But you know, that's not really the point

because, while it's obviously a relief that,

in this kind of situation,

you should end up getting back any money that's been stolen,

as indeed I did,

the big question is

why was it so easy to be taken in in the first place?

So, are banks doing enough to keep our money safe?

Well, Andrew's former bank, Lloyds, told us that

it takes fraud very seriously

and it was because Andrew had been the victim of identity theft

that the fraudster was able to bypass the branch's usual

stringent security checks.

Once it was alerted to the fraud,

it immediately placed blocks on the account and ensured

a full refund of the money which had been withdrawn.

And my bank, Santander,

reiterated that customers who are the victim of a fraud

through no fault of their own will not lose out financially.

It says that it constantly is improving policies and systems

to prevent cases of fraud such as this one

and continues to invest and install new technology that also helps

identify and verify ID documents.

In my case, however, the bank says its policies were not followed,

allowing the fraud to occur, and they've apologised

for the inconvenience and the distress caused.

But I'm afraid that, after his experience, like me,

Andrew has had his faith in banks shattered.

You just think to yourself,

you don't want to put your money in the banks.

You've always been told when you're young it's the safest place

to have your money, it's secure,

and unfortunately it isn't at the moment.

Naturally, I can understand how he feels but is he right?

Well, later on, we'll be putting just that point to the organisation

that works with the banks to tackle fraud,

to see what it has to say

about whether they can still be relied upon to keep your money safe.

Year on year, for four years, there has been an increase in fraud.

All of that suggests that the banks aren't doing a terribly good job

of protecting our money and indeed their business interests.

In stories and comics,

I think we all know what a cartoon bank robber looks like.

Black-and-white striped top, a mask, maybe,

and always a bag of swag slung over their shoulder.

Well, in the real world, of course, things aren't that simple

and, judging by the cases that we heard about

earlier in the programme, some of the biggest names in banking

can all too easily be fooled into handing over their customers' cash

to a villain who is wearing, well, no disguise whatsoever.

All of which does make you wonder, if banks are struggling

to stop the scammers when they are looking them right in the eye,

what hope do they have of tackling the criminals who are hiding behind

the faceless world of online banking?

It was a Sunday morning last winter when tens of thousands of customers

of Tesco Bank woke to alarming news about their accounts.

It was a modern-style bank robbery over the internet,

which may have netted millions of pounds from Tesco customers.

The bank's computer system had been hacked into

and, as a result, suspicious activity had been detected

on accounts nationwide.

Among those affected was Daniel Nugent in Aberdare.

I woke up in the morning, switched my phone on and it buzzed

and I had a look at it and it said that it was from Tesco Bank,

asking me to contact them.

I had another text message from them,

saying that they detected suspicious account activity with my account.

Daniel called the bank straight away

but, no doubt because so many people had been affected,

it was nearly an hour before he was able to speak to anyone

and, when he did, he was reassured that all was fine.

He was saying, "Yeah, carry on using your card and everything,

"we think we've found what the issue is.

"Just carry on as normal, there will be no issues."

Daniel turned on the TV to hear the news that the accounts of

thousands of Tesco banking customers had been compromised.

I was actually getting more information from the news

than I had got from the bank when I had rung them up and talked to them,

which was quite a bizarre situation to be in.

Daniel then says he received advice which entirely contradicted

what he'd just been told.

Then I got another text message saying,

"Don't use anything, stop using it at all costs.

"We're going to send you a new card," and all this sort of thing.

With the call centre saying one thing and

texts from the bank saying another, Daniel was really worried.

News reports were emerging saying money was missing

from 20,000 customers' accounts,

and although it was later revealed hackers had managed to steal

£2.5 million from the lower figure of 9,000 accounts,

even at this early stage, it was clear that, to date,

this was one of the most high-profile cyber attacks

on a British bank.

It was at that point that me and my partner made the decision

to take the money out of the account

because we didn't really know what was happening and I needed to get

fuel for my car, to go to work,

so I thought, "I don't really want to risk this.

"This doesn't sound very good."

With his money now stowed away in his wife's account

with a different bank, Daniel felt that his money was safe.

But after more calls and texts to the bank,

he still wasn't quite sure whether the compromised account

would now be safe to use again.

It was disappointing, really. It was just total chaos.

I still don't really know what's happened,

I still don't really know why it happened,

what they've done to fix it, how they resolved it,

HAVE they resolved it?

Have they made anything better,

have they made sure it won't happen again?

Nobody's told me anything.

When we put all of this to Tesco Bank,

it apologised for the worry and inconvenience caused by this issue

but pointed out that, within 72 hours of the fraud being spotted,

all customer accounts were refunded in full and the bank communicated

directly with every customer affected

to reassure them that they could bank safely, securely and as normal.

Well, the bank continues to work with regulators and the authorities

regarding this case

so we still don't know for sure if the criminals just got lucky

or if, as had been claimed, there were flaws in the security

of some of its mobile apps that hadn't yet been addressed.

Whatever the cause, the attack left not just customers

but the entire banking industry reeling

and though, as we'll see later in the programme,

the vast majority of scams involving banks remain aimed at the customer,

the Tesco case just underlines

that the banks themselves are targets, too.

At Rip-Off Britain, time and time again,

we hear from people who have become the victims of online banking scams

and the big question always is, of course,

how is it that the fraudsters can bypass the security measures

that the banks have put in place?

Well, I'm about to meet a man who says he knows exactly

how the fraudsters are able to crack those hi-tech security barriers

and get their hands on your money.

Dr Steven Murdoch is a computer scientist

here at University College, London,

and is an expert on online banking security systems.

What do most banks use as protection for their customers?

A common one is card readers

where someone puts their card into a particular device.

Something like that.

Many of us who bank online

will be familiar with these hand-held devices,

all designed to put extra security steps between customers

and the fraudsters.

This generates a code which is then put into the online banking system.

There's also ones which don't have a card, like this one,

where you put in your Pin,

it gives you a code, you type in the number,

and some other banks will phone you up

when you're doing a new transaction and then ask you to verify it.

Are they sufficient? Are these actually effective?

These sorts of techniques definitely do prevent some types of fraud

but they are not going to prevent all types of fraud.

In particular, what criminals have shown they're able to do

is trick customers into using these devices

and get them to authorise a transaction

without the customer actually realising what they're doing.

So, no matter how good these devices are, as we've seen before,

by far the most effective way for fraudsters to bypass

any of the bank's security measures

is to trick customers into doing it for them

and Steven wants to show me one way that they do that,

by demonstrating how a simple e-mail scam can give criminals,

who could be anywhere in the world, full access to your cash.

What I'll do is I'll show how this could work with mobile banking.

So, if we suppose this is the customer's mobile phone...

So imagine you've received an e-mail from someone you don't recognise and

there's an attachment that, without thinking, you unwittingly click on.

Within that attachment could be what's called malware,

which, once opened, will infect your computer and allow hackers to watch

everything you do online, including your bank account.

It's asking for your username so I'll type in any username.

It's asking for the password so I'll type in any password

and then it says, "insert your card into your card reader".

So, while you put that unique number into the login page,

all the time, hackers could be watching,

waiting for you to get into your online account.

-And all this time you think it's genuine?

-Yeah, and it says,

"You're logged in to online banking," and if I continued,

I'd be able to do all my online banking as normal.

So while you think you're transferring maybe £25 to pay a bill,

actually the scammers are taking the maximum amount they can

without letting warning bells go off within the bank?

-Yes.

-You could lose a lot of money then?

Yes, people have been known losing tens of thousands of pounds,

even hundreds of thousands of pounds through techniques like that

because the criminal might not do just one transaction,

they might try the same scam multiple times

and then transfer a lot of money.

So, here's the advice again.

Always ignore e-mails

from anyone you don't know or you weren't expecting

and treat any unexpected communication from a bank,

even if it is your own, with extreme caution,

unless, as Steven reiterates,

you're absolutely sure it's for real.

If something changes in the way that you do online banking

or in the way that your bank talks to you,

it could be perfectly legitimate.

Banks change their activities all the time.

But maybe it's best to check and don't rush into things.

Criminals want to cause people to rush and they do that because

people will think less clearly when they're under pressure.

Take a little bit of time to think about the consequences

and maybe ask your bank or ask a friend.

Well, that's all well and good when a fraudster is trying

to get at the money through YOU.

If, however, they're targeting your bank,

as happened in the Tesco case,

there's very little you can do except hope that the bank

has enough security procedures in place to stop that kind of attack.

Back in Aberdare, Daniel considers he had a lucky escape

but, while he didn't lose money that day,

and, if he had, he knows he'd have got it back,

his faith in online banking has never been restored.

I feel Tesco Bank dealt with me really poorly.

It was just a total nightmare,

an absolute catastrophe

and they've inspired absolutely no confidence in me at all.

I don't trust them at all and I don't think that I ever could

after what happened.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, how one of my closest friends

got embroiled in one of the most widespread bank scams of all,

and it cost him his entire life savings.

It makes me feel very, very insecure.

I'm now entering my 70s.

How am I going to provide for my old age?

Our annual pop-up shop

was this year full to bursting from start to finish,

giving more opportunities than ever

for our team of experts to get stuck into solving your problems.

But how would I have known to install an update?

That's the question, because they

-don't seem to have communicated this to you very well.

-Not at all.

Personal finance expert Sarah Pennells

was tackling issues to do with money

and Anne Lawton came to see her for advice on some concert tickets

she'd bought online.

So, Anne, what's the issue with these tickets?

I paid £109.99 each for tickets

and when they arrived, they were valued at £45 each and £7.

Anne also paid just under £69 in fees.

It seems, without realising it,

she'd ended up buying her tickets through a third-party website

where she'd been charged more than twice the original value,

but she's unsure how that happened

when she's adamant the official site was her first port of call.

And you bought them directly from the venue's own website?

-Yes, yes.

-So, did you know you were going to another company?

No, I didn't, until I actually got the tickets.

You have complained to the venue, have you?

-Yes.

-And what have they said?

Certain ticket people, you can guarantee your tickets are valid.

From others, of which the one that mine is from, they may not be.

So they're saying your ticket may not even be valid?

-Yes.

-Goodness!

But although Anne can't be absolutely sure

of the tickets' legitimacy,

it is perfectly legal for anyone to sell on genuine concert tickets,

so however Anne ended up on that third-party site,

Sarah fears Anne's options may be limited.

I don't think there's an easy way you're going to get your money back.

-No.

-Because the whole model of ticket resellers

-is to mark up the price and sell them on.

-Yes.

So Sarah thinks the only realistic option is to use the tickets,

hope they're genuine

and put the eye-watering cost down to experience.

Go to your concert, enjoy yourself, have a good time.

-If we get in!

-Let me know if you can't get in.

Well, the good news is that Anne's tickets were the real deal.

And although she paid handsomely for the experience,

she's reported back to us that she had a great time.

And since our pop-up shop, new legislation has been proposed

which aims to increase transparency and regulation

around the sale of concert tickets

and we'll be returning to the subject later in the series.

Now earlier in the programme, we heard just how far criminals

are prepared to go to get their hands on other people's money

and, what's more, they can be so convincing that it's becoming

increasingly tricky to spot the warning signs

that you might be about to be duped.

Well, that's certainly something that a very close friend of mine

has found to his cost.

Though it's always horrible to hear about anyone being conned

out of anything, it's particularly hard to watch someone you really

care about going through such a dreadful experience as this.

As we've heard throughout the programme,

we all need to be on our guard against the fraudsters

trying to get access to our bank accounts.

Trouble is, the elaborate lies they'll come up with to gain your trust

are increasingly inventive, whether they're impersonating your bank

or, as we hear more and more, pretending to be from the police,

claiming your help is needed for some sort of undercover operation

to keep your money safe.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened

to one of my dearest friends.

He fell for a scam that cost him his entire life savings.

'Jonathon Keats is a retired teacher and we go way back.'

-Hi.

-Hello.

'So, when I received a phone call from him in a frantic state in 2015,

'I was terribly concerned.'

-Go in here?

-Yes, in there, please.

So, Jonno, we've known each other for quite a long time, haven't we?

Yes, about 20 years.

Wow, that is a long time.

Yes.

It was one afternoon in November 2015 that Jonno received an e-mail

supposedly from NatWest Bank warning him that several attempts had been

made to hack into his online bank account

and urgent action was required.

So, Jonno, this is the e-mail that popped up in your account.

Yes, this is it.

From NatWest...

Helpful Banking, yes.

When I look at this, I see that it's first of all headlined,

"RE multiple failed login attempts,"

-so that kind of sets you on edge, presumably.

-Yes.

What kind of really scared me was this note which says,

"Failure to restore full access can lead to permanent suspension

"of access to our online banking service."

I mean, how did you feel when you saw that?

I thought, "Good God, somebody's got into my account."

So immediately I had to ring this number.

Now, given that Jonno's entire life savings were in this account,

a total of £120,000, he panicked,

called the number on the e-mail and found himself speaking to

someone apparently in the NatWest fraud department.

He said the NatWest security department thought that fraud was

taking place, small sums were being withdrawn from my account and from

other accounts in the branch,

and they wanted to catch the person involved in the branch.

And he wanted to get you involved?

Yes, he wanted to get me involved. Would I agree to do this?

And I, of course, said yes.

Jonno was told by this person, who was using the name Graham,

that his help was needed in a top-secret internal investigation

and the first priority was to keep his own money safe,

so he'd have to transfer his savings out of his NatWest account

and into a safe one at another bank entirely, Lloyds.

Didn't that strike you as a bit odd? Did you think, "Why me?"?

No, I suppose that one side of me, one ridiculous, naive side of me

thought, "Gosh, this is flattering,

"I'm being involved in an operation to get the bad guys,"

and so I joined in.

I thought, "Yes, yup, get them."

He tickled my vanity, there's no doubt about that.

And Graham, who of course, in reality, had nothing to do

with the NatWest fraud department and was an out-and-out fraudster,

warned Jonno he had to act fast and get down to his local branch

to transfer the money in person.

I put on my coat and I went down to the bank,

and then I would make this transfer of £120,000.

So-called Graham had even come up with an explanation

for what Jonno should say if bank staff queried what he was doing.

He was to tell them he'd found a better interest rate elsewhere,

but it was a line he wasn't sure would work.

I was also thinking,

"How the monkey's am I going to convince the bank

"that I want to move this vast sum

"because I'm going to get a better rate of interest at Lloyds?"

And I thought, "They'll take me into a room or something like that

"and sit me down in front of the computer and show me

"how their rate of interest is better than Lloyds,"

and they'll completely destroy the deception

that he had put me up to making.

So, if you're feeling this sort of discomfort with the idea,

why didn't you just kind of say,

"OK, I'm not going to do this thing"?

I don't know.

I think I felt that I must go through with it, it is important,

so I'll do it because something good will come out of it.

But there was nothing good about this situation.

Though convinced he was taking part in a major undercover investigation,

Jonno was about to hand over his life savings to a fraudster.

So, Jonno, we've reached the scene of the crime.

-Yes.

-Describe what happened when you went in there.

When I went in, to transfer £120,000 from my deposit account

to the Lloyds account which the fraudster had given me

the number of, the cashier started to make the transfer.

At this point, the assistant manager came to stand behind her.

What seemed extraordinary to me, then as now,

was that there was a total silence on the part of both of them.

I was not asked any questions about why I was moving this enormous sum

to an account outside the bank.

It was simply allowed to go through.

All I was told was,

"This will take until about 5pm for it to go through."

When I came out of the bank, I reported to him what had happened,

and he was very surprised

that there were no questions asked at all about the transfer.

It was all too easy for the fraudster

and, by five o'clock that evening,

the money was transferred out of Jonno's account

and into the hands of criminals, and Jonno's life savings had vanished.

But so caught up was he in the drama that it wasn't until he got home and

reflected on what had happened that the sinking realisation he'd most

likely been conned began to dawn, and that's when he rang me.

Now, as I remember it, you rang us that evening, didn't you?

Yes, I did, and I was in,

as you may recall,

a state, basically,

and you very kindly said

that you would come when I went for my interview about this

with the private banking manager.

I remember that meeting, because he said,

"The key to this whole saga

"lies with what happened here at the bank," didn't he?

That's it, yes.

Now, at this point, there's a key disagreement between

Jonno's recollection of events and what his bank says happened.

While Jonno insists the counter staff didn't quiz him over

why he was removing so much money, NatWest is adamant they did.

In a letter, it said that, in response to their questions,

Jonno had told them he'd found an account offering

a better interest rate and suggested he perhaps hadn't realised

he was being asked that question.

Well, Jonno insists he recalls no such conversation,

and he rejects the idea that he could have missed

being asked such a key question.

He says, if challenged, he wouldn't have been able to keep up the act

and simply wouldn't have gone through with it.

But, either way, NatWest said that,

because Jonno willingly transferred the money,

this couldn't be considered as fraud and, as such,

the bank wouldn't be able to refund any of the money he'd lost.

Devastated by this,

Jonno took his case to the Financial Ombudsman Service,

but it agreed with the bank, concluding that,

as it was Jonno who'd moved the money,

there was little that the cashier could have done to prevent this

from happening, even if they had asked more questions.

And all that was reiterated by NatWest

when we got in touch about the case.

The bank says, while it knows how distressing it can be when customers

fall victim to a scam, and it does everything that it can

to keep customers safe and secure, ultimately, scams like these

rely on genuine customers authorising the transfer

and, in this case, it maintains staff did question Jonno

but he was insistent he wanted the payment to proceed.

But there was a further twist to come

and it came to light after we got in touch with the police.

An investigation into Jonno's case

had uncovered how the scam had unfolded

and exposed the elaborate planning the fraudsters had gone to,

not just to set the whole thing up but also to cover their tracks.

The investigation found that,

after Jonno's money had been paid into Lloyds,

it was quickly dispersed between no fewer than 11 other accounts,

making it very difficult to trace.

In fact, the police had to get separate court orders

before they could gain access to each of these accounts,

by which time they'd all been emptied,

except, that is, for one,

which still had £25,000 left

and this was, I'm pleased to say, transferred back to Jonno.

In addition, Jonno told us some more of his money has been recovered

and returned to him, a total of £40,500.

So, although that means he's had back almost £66,000,

it still leaves him more than £53,000 out of pocket.

But the police investigation went on to raise questions about how

the fraudster was able to open the Lloyds account in the first place.

By law, the bank should make proper checks on people

wishing to open bank accounts,

but the police found, in this instance,

that the Lloyds account had been opened up by someone using

tenancy agreements full of spelling mistakes

and that other documents used to open the account were illegible.

The Met Police went on to tell us they believe this raises serious

concerns about whether Lloyds carried out its due diligence.

When we put that to Lloyds,

it told us this was the first time it had heard such a suggestion,

but it had co-operated fully with the police investigation

and supplied all evidence requested.

The bank says its commitment to fraud prevention

is industry-leading, and it carries out stringent account opening checks

to ensure it is dealing with a genuine customer

at the time an account is opened and, after reviewing its records,

it's confident staff did do everything properly

on this particular occasion.

Well, though the banks maintain cases such as this one

are not down to them,

Jonno thinks they are too quick to remove themselves from any

responsibility, while accepting, of course,

his own role in everything that happened.

But you wouldn't argue with the basic point,

that actually you WERE responsible, you did it to yourself,

in the sense that you fell for a scam...

-Yes.

-..and you went along with what the scammer wanted you to do.

Yes, I acknowledge that, but I still think that, under the circumstances,

they had a duty, they had an opportunity to hold me back

at a crucial point, which they could have done.

And that's a view which others

who have been similarly conned would share.

We've featured many such cases before

and, though the lies that convinced them may have differed,

the end result was the same -

fraudsters seduced them into handing over tens of thousands of pounds.

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

and they were working with the bank.

They'd been into my Santander account

and tried both of my credit cards.

They said they were from the fraud squad.

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

So, unfortunately for Jonno, he's now joined the ranks

of those victims of scams who have been made to feel

it's all their own fault and, because of that,

unlike some of the other cases we've heard about today,

they won't be reimbursed.

Well, we know a lot of you feel that's not just harsh

but perhaps even unfair.

So, when Angela went to meet the organisation that works with banks

and finance companies to tackle fraud, Financial Fraud Action UK,

that was a point she was particularly keen to raise.

We've been looking at figures which suggest that,

year-on-year for four years, there has been an increase in fraud.

All of that suggests that

the banks aren't doing a terribly good job of protecting our money.

The banks are obviously really extremely concerned about this.

It's the big thing for them

to make sure that the customers are protected, and, in fact,

they prevent about £6.40 in every £10 of fraud attempted.

But what the fraudsters are doing is turning to target the consumers

individually as the weakest point in the chain,

and it's that that we've got to try and close down on.

And yet there is still the perception

within the banking industry that there is a blame culture,

that when someone finds that they have become a victim of fraud,

whether it's using their credit card or online banking or whatever,

that they are the ones who are put in the position of having to prove

that they are the victims.

So I think that, in most cases, the victim is treated as that.

They don't have to prove that they are a victim.

They are actually given the benefit of understanding

that they are a victim of fraud.

-Not always.

-No, well, every case is different,

and it's not always until you start looking at it

you realise what's happened.

You've virtually admitted, then,

that it is a situation where someone is a victim of a scam,

it is not something that they've done purposefully.

-Mm-hm.

-You can't keep blaming the consumer.

These scam merchants are very persuasive,

they're very professional.

What more can be done to protect the public from that kind of scam?

It's no good just saying, "Well, I'm sorry,

"buyer beware, but it's your fault."

Surely the banks are complicit in this as well.

No, they're not complicit.

I think the banks are trying to improve the way in which victims

are dealt with, to get moving as quickly as possible,

because the problem is, the money moves extremely quickly

from one account to another in those cases.

Can you put your hand on your heart and say honestly that the FFA

and the banks in this country are doing everything possible to protect

their customers?

Yes, they are.

I mean, absolutely. I work with the fraud guys, the fraud managers,

and I know how much they personally feel that they want to make their

banks secure and the customers as safe as possible,

so they are doing everything they can,

but it is an ongoing battle. It changes day by day.

So, if the FFA and the banking system are, as you say,

doing their very best to protect our money,

what can the consumer do to protect themselves and their money?

If someone's putting you under pressure, take back control.

Don't give away Pins and passwords

just because someone has got a bit of information about you

and says they are from the police.

Just stop and think for a moment, and I think, if we did that,

that we would overcome a lot of the issues

that we are seeing at the moment.

Well, that really is the key advice.

Be very sceptical of any contact from someone

who contacts you out of the blue about your bank account,

especially if they are saying you need to transfer any funds.

I know Jonno bitterly regrets not taking the time to check out

what he was being told.

So, Jonno, now you've had this horrible experience,

has it affected the way your retirement was going to play out?

Yes, it makes me feel very, very insecure.

I'm now entering my 70s.

How am I going to provide for my old age?

I'm deeply unsatisfied with the bank's response and I'm suspicious.

I don't enter the bank with trust, as I did before.

And that is the thing which, I think,

that loss of trust, is what hurts me more than anything.

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

then get in touch with us via our Facebook page, BBC Rip-Off Britain,

our website, bbc.co.uk/ripoffbritain,

or e-mail...

Or, if you want to send us a letter...

Well, as you might imagine, for me,

hearing all those people's experiences

really did bring back all the horrible feelings I had

when money was stolen from my bank savings account,

so I very much sympathise with what they've all been through.

And while, of course, I can only speak for myself here,

I genuinely have been left feeling very vulnerable and unsure

as to who to trust, which is a real shame,

because in life I never felt like that before.

No, but hopefully, Gloria, it was reassuring to hear

all of the things that are being done to protect us from these types

of frauds, and it does seem that,

whilst there is obviously still a long way to go,

all the high-profile cases that we read about in the papers,

including yours, Gloria, are

at least making the banks tighten up all of their security systems

to at least try and minimise the chance of the same thing

happening to anyone else.

What struck me, though, was the sheer audacity

of some of the criminals in these attacks, and just how far

they are prepared to go to get their hands on someone else's money.

It's all thoroughly unsettling.

So it's really worth being extra cautious when you answer the phone

or click on an e-mail.

A single moment of reflection could save an awful lot of hassle

and heartbreak further down the line.

Well, on that note, it's time for us to leave you

but, until the next time, from all of us, goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Goodbye.