A scam victim decided to engage with fraudsters rather than immediately hang up, adopting the persona of a confused senior citizen to waste the scammers’ time and observe their tactics.
The incident began when an automated call claiming to be from Barclays Bank alleged unauthorized activity on the recipient’s account. Though the recipient did not bank with Barclays, he chose to play along. A man with a received pronunciation accent called back, claiming to represent an investigations team, and explained that the account holder’s credit card had been compromised and immediate action was necessary.
During the subsequent conversation with someone calling himself “Adam,” the recipient provided false information when asked about account balances, claiming to have approximately £80,000 on deposit. This statement appeared to intensify Adam’s focus. When asked for banking details, the recipient provided a fabricated PIN and a partially false debit card number. Adam initially accepted the information but later indicated the complete card number did not validate as genuine. The scammer continued the interaction anyway, explaining that due to banks being closed on Sunday, a courier would need to collect the debit card immediately for security purposes. The recipient was instructed to seal the card in an envelope addressed to an HSBC investigations team reference.
The scheme began to unravel when Adam arranged for a courier to arrive at an address the recipient had provided. The address was deliberately false, located in an area where the recipient had previously lived, with a house number too high to exist on that street. When Adam reported that a blue Prius had arrived at what appeared to be a block of flats rather than a house, the recipient maintained his deception, stating he could not see the vehicle from his window. The interaction continued through multiple calls as the scammer attempted to resolve the address discrepancy.
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