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I am treasurer of a small charity and recently received an email that appeared to be from the chair asking me to send payment of £780 to supplier.
I immediately knew it was a scam – it wasn’t written in his style and when I looked closely, it wasn’t from his email address. I answered and asked what it was forand then continued the dialogue.
The scammer ended up giving me a sort code and account number at Metro Bank to whom I should make the payment. So I called Metro to report that one of the his clients conducted criminal activity.
Instead of thanking me, was completely uninterested and neither was I his client. He kept saying I should contact our bank and not to worry as I haven’t transferred any money.
I was amazed that a bank would not want to continue this. If I see a Tesco robbery in progress, should I just ignore it?
NF, via email
Just as your email arrived in my inbox, I was reading another one: a press release about fraud from, would you believe, Metro Bank.
The message said: “It’s unfair for users to be on their toes all the time. But given the huge sums of money fraudsters can make, they never stop, never miss an opportunity to defraud, and we all need to work together to minimize the damage they can do.”
I asked the company for your email and they said, “Sorry about that NF did not get a more positive response when he contacted us, but I can assure you that we have (now) acted on the information provided and appropriate action has been taken against the account in question.
“We would encourage anyone who suspects fraud to report it to the appropriate parties.
“We continue to work closely with other stakeholders, including banks, network operators and law enforcement, to help prevent and protect customers from fraud.”
Fraudsters are increasingly targeting the coffers of small charities, in part because they often publish their details on the charity’s website. Be warned.
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