By Gabriel Princewill-
Barclays bank has sent a birthday cake of apology to a healthcare worker who fell victim to to scammers and paid them over £5,ooo following a call asking her for money to pay her tax arrears or face jail.
It was a gesture to appease the woman who suffered lots of inconvenience for an action she took in the spur of the moment.
After an investigation that took over 2 months. the bank also reimbursed Vera Ajoku, 29 of the £5,00o payment she carelessly made to fraudsters ,who mailed her a fake HMRC document, with a letter headed payment demanding she pays a tax payment debt she owed.
Ms Ajoku then parted with the large sum after the crooks who disguised themselves as HMRC officials told her an arrest was pending unless she paid the sum immediately.
Ms Ajoku, 29, said the men spoke with an Asian dialect, and she was a bit suspicious at first but believed the official looking document.
Strangely, Ms Ajoku felt she felt she may have been behind on her taxes without realising, then caved in to phone pressure to part with part of her hard earned cash. The crooks convinced her she faced an impending jail sentence, and that she would lose her car and be exposed in the media.
Instead of smelling a rat and running a mile, Ms Ajoku succumbed to fear and performed a straight wired transaction of £5,000 . On a whim , the unsuspecting former model had yielded to the demands of scammers, only to be taken to task by her manager who was witnessing the telephone conversation.
Her life immediately turned upside down following the scam, a whole review of her immediate plans was called to play. The money was a bulk of her savings, but it didn’t stop her making the payment quickly.
How such scammers choose their prey is a mystery. The only rational conclusion has to be that they know their victim has the funds to pull off the scam.
The bank conducted an investigation into the scam, appearing to suspect Ms Ajoku at one point, she claimed. ”Barclays fraud team called me and asked me lots of questions then said I was very negligent”. I was hurt at the time because I had just been a victim of crime and I was being told I was negligent.
I felt like the criminal, not the victim. When I received the birthday cake as an apology, I thought the birthday cake was a good gesture. I eventually got my money back, so I am glad. It was a nightmare at first. People say I was stupid, but I really was under pressure at the time. I have learnt my lesson now.”
Barclays bank told Ms Ajoku they had been trying to trace the perpetrators, but did not say whether they had been caught. Tracking them would not be expected to be difficult, they had already left their trail through the bank accounts in receipt of the payments.
I have now been able to pay by bills and will not fall for that trick in future. I have learnt her lesson”.
The bank tool over two months investigating the fraud, but never stated how far it progressed in its inquiries.
Ms Ajoku was told that the money had been siphoned into another account, but why that account holder was not apprehended and questioned is not known.
She began to tell friends she was feeling suicidal over the ward of money she gave away and her fears that the Bank may not replace the money. ”I thought they may want to make an example of me, at one point I felt my surname may work against me because my father is Nigerian”.
Within a week of The Eye Of Media’s interest in the case, she was refunded of the money which Barclays bank had been investigating. However the bank has not revealed why it took so long to replace the lost cash, or inform us how successful their investigation was in catching the culprits.
The bank said it could not disclose their confidential processes, and argued that it would breach Data Protection for them to give us more information, despite Ms Ajoku permitting them in writing to tell us how the investigation went for public interest.
Ms Ajoku said she was just recovering from a four year relationship with her former fiancee, which affected her state of mind at the time. The break of the relationship which was affected by lockdown rules at the time, had been dominating her thoughts at the time even whilst at work.
Only after she had paid out the cash, did her manager who overheard the conversation, point out that it all looked strange and wrong. She immediately called the police and reported the fraud, but was deeply affected by the investigative process by ACTION FRAUD.
”It was very scary at the time, I was behind on my rent and car insurance, I was paranoid the whole time, thinking that my surname was working against me, even though I stupidly fell for the scam”.
Ms Ajoku, who also works two jobs- the other with people suffering with learning disability- has now got her life back on track, and moved to a bigger accommodation in Essex, having moved from Dublin, where her parents reside.