Emily Maitlis opens up about terrifying bank scam: ‘I feel sick’

‘I think [this is a] recurring thing that gets you at your most vulnerable by telling you you’re already a victim’

(DAVID HARTLEY/Shutterstock)

BBC presenter Emily Maitlis has revealed that she almost fell victim to a bank fraud scheme last week and warned others to be vigilant.

The former Newsnight anchor wrote about her experience on Twitter and described how the sophisticated scam was nearly successful.

She said she received a call from a person claiming to be from her bank’s fraud detection squad on Thursday evening, close to 8pm, and was told she had been a victim of fraud as attempts had already been made on her bank account.

Maitlis asked the caller for proof that he was from the fraud detection squad and was directed to Google the bank’s phone number for lost and stolen cards.

“Sure enough the same number [that called me] came up,” she wrote. “So I listened as he told me I’d had attempts made on my card, my accounts had been visualised, and my email was also compromised.

“I’d have to change everything over,” she added. “I was horrified. I suspected it was because I’d clicked on a link for a missed parcel.”

But after asking for the name and email address of the man on the phone, the call went dead, Maitlis continued.

The presenter rang her bank back and said she had just spoken “to one of your guys” about the attempts made on her account, only to be told that there were no such attempts.

“So then it dawns on me the fraud detection call is actually the fraudster,” she wrote. “And I feel sick. Because it’s all a but matrix [sic].”

Maitlis said that she told her story to a friend the next day, adding that his “face slowly drains as he realises the exact same thing has happened to him.”

“They even played the ‘this call will be recorded for training purposes’ schpiel at the beginning,” she warned. “To make it sound bona fide. So this is I think a now recurring thing that gets you at your most vulnerable by telling you you’re already a victim. Early evening. Off guard.”

Maitlis finished her Twitter thread by adding: “The weirdest thing is, I never ever ever pick up my phone normally. To anyone. And I’m now thinking that’s the sanest life decision I have made.”

Last year, UK Finance issued a warning that the level of fraud in the country was so high that it posed “a national security threat”.

It came after around £355.3 million was lost to bank transfer scams in the first half od 2021, a 71 per cent increase in the scam compared to the year before.

According to Which?, Britons are being robbed of £28,000 an hour as a result of bank transfer scams, but only 42 per cent of victims get their money back.

Barclays warned customers last year that a genuine bank would never ask customers to “transfer money to a ‘safe account’”, adding: “Fraudsters try to appear as legitimate as possible, so it’s improtant to be vigilant and stay alert to anything suspicious.”