Tasburgh man felt 'physically sick' after £1,200 scam

Jerry Watts says he never thought he would be scammed

A man has told how he was left feeling "physically sick" after being scammed out of £1,200.

Jerry Watts, 68, from Tasburgh, near Norwich, saw the money taken from his bank account on 17 October.

He reported the incident and hoped that going public might persuade others to avoid his mistake.

The BBC and Stop Scams UK are providing advice on how to spot and avoid scams in a week-long campaign.

"They were so convincing I didn't see it coming," he said. "I feel a fool for falling for it. I felt physically sick."

Restarted payments

A few days before the money was taken, Mr Watts received an email telling him a direct debit had not been paid and urged him to make the payment.

He found a monthly payment had indeed been stopped and he restarted the payments by entering his banking details.

Two days later, someone called him and said they were from his bank's fraud department, adding there seemed to be some fraudulent activity on his account.

The caller went on to ask him if he recognised several payments of a few hundred pounds to other firms.

"They said, well we need to clear them off your account. We just need this code to take them off your bank account," said Mr Watts.

He then repeated the code sent to his mobile device.

Mr Watts said when he put the phone down he felt he had been conned, and checked his banking app to find £1,200 had been taken.

In the year to March 2023 the Home Office recorded 1.25 million cases of fraud. Of those cases around 4% were investigated with just over 4,000 ending up in court.

He immediately contacted his bank which said the transactions were pending.

They diverted the money to the bank's fraud account, reimbursing Mr Watts the day after.

"I still shake now talking about it, but I want to tell everybody about it," he said.

"The fraudulent people knew all my details, they sounded exactly like someone from customer services."

If you would like to hear more about Mr Watt's case, listen to the interview with BBC Radio Norfolk here.

How to prevent fraud

The Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign is urging people to:

• Stop: Taking a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe

• Challenge: Could it be fake? It is OK to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you

• Protect: Contact your bank immediately if you think you've fallen for a scam and report it to Action Fraud