50 Shocking Stories From People Who Got Tricked Out Of Their Money

my mum sold something very expensive online and the person paid with fake notes, not sure how she didn't notice they were very obviously fake.

Older, unwell in-law lost a few thousand to a phone scammer purporting to be her son, saying they were in financial trouble.
We got the money back for her, from her bank. The whole thing was devastating for her.

I met someone who fell for the American Soldier romance scam. She was quite young and very lonely. I can't see how she didn't know it was a scam, I suspect she enjoyed the attention even though she knew it wasn't genuine. She couldn't afford the money she sent.

I've been scammed. I.wont say how as it'll be outing, but not a romance scam or sending money abroad or anything like that

I was scammed for 15k, and the knock on impact meant I lost quite a bit more money than that.

It made me feel sick, ashamed, sad, desperate and overwhelmed.

I just don't know how people live with themselves when they commit these scams.

Neighbour’s dad sent loads of money to an animal charity. A real charity but they kept sending letters begging for more cash and he donated about 50000 pounds in the end, his savings. Not a scam but not right in my book.

My best friend was scammed out of 10000 Euros, i.e. first three months’ rent, for a flat that didn’t exist. They were very clever and she was very desperate as flats are so hard to find here.

My lovely, previously switched on 90 year old Dad. Classic con. Roofer knocked at door said working in street noticed problem with his roof persuaded him to drive to bank to get cash to pay for work .No work done. £800 Never seen again.Police were very supportive but nothing could be done. I was SO SO angry that my Dad had become a target

A neighbour of mine lost £45k by someone pretending to be the fraud squad from her bank. She still refuses to believe the “nice man” probably isn’t even called Luke

My mum scammed my grandmother out of thousands. It went to civil court, one of the many reasons I am no contact with her

A friend’s mother was taken in by a scammer who represented himself as a Master Sergeant in the US Army, serving in the Middle East. She tried to convince her mom that it was a scam, and that a real army sergeant would not be constantly skint unless he had serious vices he was paying for.

She turned to me for help because I served in the US Army and have known them both for years. I’m an American. It took several phone calls and emails, but I was able to show her how much money a noncommissioned officer with that rating would make on deployment (quite a lot of money) and convince her that he would not have to pay for medical care, permission to take leave and all sorts of other expenses he was asking her to pay for. She blocked him, but at that point she was out about $10k.

My MIL fell for an email from someone who she believed was her friend, asking her to buy supermarket vouchers on her behalf and sending the scammer the voucher numbers.. She did it a couple of times before her daughter caught her doing it and did some digging. She lost about £300

I was accused of trying to scam a shop. On holidays at a supermarket checkout. I had an expensive bottle of alcohol that had gone through and someone walked off with it. I didn’t see anyone take it but when I went to start bagging my shop I realised it wasn’t there. I tried to explain that the person before me must have taken it, and I needed to get another. Got told no, they had seen this happen before and I had to pay for it. I got really stressed until I realised I could just leave (I hadn’t payed yet) and do my shopping somewhere else.

I work for a retailer that sells vouchers. I can't tell you the amount of times I have refused to sell them to an elderly person who was being threatened by the likes of "Jeff Bezos" or "Elon Musk" to do as they say. Had older ladies come in claiming they were speaking with their childhood pop star crush. Men who are being scammed by pretty women via instagram. Even young employees who fall for their 'boss asking them to buy thousands in vouchers for an employee giveaway'. Several times a day.

I know one person (self-employed professional) who was scammed by her secretary out of her practice account. It went to court. The money was all spent so no hope getting it back.

And another, a consultant doctor, who was scammed by his cleaning lady. He had recently separated acrimoniously and assumed it was his ex wife eking revenge via the joint savings. The cleaning lady got a new conservatory, and bought her son a motorbike.

Both in the tens of thousands.

Just remembered me and DH!

Many years ago when he was self employed he leased his work van. At the end of the 4 year lease he had the option to give the van back or buy it.

When he contacted them the company said they had been taken over by a large well known bank who were closing the commercial vehicle leasing part of the business so didn't want the vans back, quoted him a good price to buy it.

We sent them a cheque, v5 arrived in DH name, all good.

Until 3 months later a bailiff turned up at our house to repossess the van for non-payment!!!!

It turned out someone had cashed our cheque, we suspected a disgruntled employee (they were all losing their jobs as a result of the takeover).

Luckily our bank sorted it and he got to keep the van!!!

My intelligent dad was sending lots of money to his 'girlfriend' in Russia, I saw a photo of her - she was stunning, my dad isn't ! He sent her money for a holiday and flew over to Russia for a month to see her but she got Covid so couldn't meet him and eventually he was told she had died. It was horrific, he was traumatised as his previous (very real) partner had died very young only 2 years previously. He still cannot see he was scammed and genuinely believes she died.

I fell for a Joules closing down sale and happily put £160 worth of bits in my basket , checked out and waited patiently

Week later whilst looking to see if I could track the delivery I saw the email confirmation was something like " joules.janesmith@hotmail.com" I realised I'd been fooled , when I went into the bank to ask if I should order a new card just in case , they opened a dispute , new card on phone immediately and refunded within 24 hrs , I was really impressed and much more vigilant since .

I also have a work colleague who took 4 years and over £30,000 getting rid of her very young Tunisian husband . That's a whole other story.

Two friends of mine were scammed:

- one got a call from someone pretending to be his bank telling him he needed to move money as his account was no longer safe. Luckily his bank refunded him the full amount.
- same friend met someone online who claimed they had financial issues, he'd send him money most days to pay for his food or some other smallish expense. It only stopped when the app he used changed the rules and he could no longer send money in the same way. He asked me to send him the money saying he'd pay me back - I refused. By the time he got to this stage a couple of grand had been sent over. Funnily enough when he couldn't send money anymore he stopped hearing from this guy as much.
- the other friend had some guy come onto him at a bar, told him he couldn't go back with him that night, but did want to see him again. Asked if he could put his number into my friends phone- he'd actually gone onto his banking app and sent a load of money to himself.

My grandad got a text a couple of years ago saying he needed to log on to the NHS app and pay for his certificate to prove he had been vaccinated against covid for 99p..
He logged on and paid the 99p and had his bank cleared out at the same time.

Yes. Friends husband had a call from his bank. They old him they needed to transfer their entire business account balance due to a fraudulent transaction , only it wasn't the bank of course. It was a lot of money and he did eventually get it all back as the bank admitted fault
I think.

Not exactly but I went to school with someone who was in the local papers for being part of a g**g that conned pensioners out of their life savings through some kind of call centre scam.

I can’t imagine anyone I know would fall for a romance scam.