By Gabriel Princewill-
A British health care worker is feeling suicidal after being fooled into parting with £5k to fraudsters who called her claiming she faced arrest and embarrassment for tax evasion.
Vera Ajoku, sent an online payment of just over £5,000 on the 30th of October, when she heard from scammers that she faced an imminent arrest of none tax payment, and that she would be exposed in the British media unless she addressed the issue promptly.
Ms Ajoku foolishly panicked, instead of scrutinising the authenticity of the call, and understanding that the system is always more flexible than the outrageous demands being made by the fraudsters. She has reported the incident to her bank at Barclays, but nearly 2 months later, she is still awaiting a solution to the problem.
The keyworker from Northern Ireland, who recently moved to Essex for work, says she is feeling suicidal. Behind on her rent and the monthly insurance for her new car, she has resorted to borrowing to stay afloat with her old lifestyle.
There are no provisions for filling in the inevitable void created when one succumbs to the fraudulent schemes of scammers. Parting with so much money to scammers is like Christmas and birthday presents coming in at once to unscrupulous con artists once they find their prey.
How the scammers expected an impressionable lady to have the large sums requested is a separate curious question. The presumption from a random caller that this victim would be in a financial position to pay the requested sum is itself inexplicable, if she wasn’t indeed targeted.
Ms Ajoku had purchased a new car that week, and 24 hours earlier had been seeking quotes for her insurance. Could there have been a weak link from that avenue?
All enquiries along those lines were negative, what was more apparent was that the 28 year old health care worker had fallen for a trick used successfully on many others, but not on all.
Sharp individuals would have been expected to treat such dubious call with a sceptical eye, secure in the knowledge that a genuine representative of the government would be open to a payment plan, as opposed to the inflexible stipulation of immediate payment made to her on the phone.
Why she didn’t request a payment plan at the very least, whilst gathering her thoughts together, is anybody’s guess.
Reckless
The immediate payment of over £5,000 was at best reckless, at worst , pathetically gullible. ”Ok, I was negligent”, she concedes with a frustrated tone. ”I had been going through a lot of personal problems. I wasn’t in a good place mentally, but was scared and alarmed”, she says.
The former model turned health and social care worker says she initially had her doubts but fell for the trick after the crooks sent her a letter headed paper with an HMRC letter demanding the payment.
Ms Ajoku, said she could not imagine at this point that the call was fake, despite her initial suspicions. ”The letter looked so real”, she says, and being a stranger to fraudulent practices, she had no way of knowing that fraud at such level of professionalism was possible.
After receiving the written letter, she was told that she stood the risk of losing her car, home, and that her bank account would be frozen. Her offences were listed for her in writing.
A letter she was sent with a fake HMRC letter read:
1) HMRC will mark your official assets, including your house,
car, and all your known bank accounts will be frozen and confiscated,
starting from today.
2) It shall also be published in local media and local news papers with your recent identity proof.
3) Any existing payment plans with the HMRC shall be terminated
4) In addition to recording criminal convictions, the court may impose
5) Your passport, State ID and your Driver’s License will be ceased and they
Violation of regular tax evasion, violation of theft by deception, wilful misrepresentation of the information to the government organisation or tax evasion, were among her alleged transgressions listed in writing.
She was told: ”This amount of £3600.00 is the amount for to resolve your criminal case and to drop your arrest warrant which is under your name and to remove all allegations which are raised by HMRC tax department.
Criminal Allegations
She was also told that :”there were four criminal allegation pressed under your name. Which is under chapter 150 with under section 37c is been removed. Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 and Section 2 of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1921.
Urgency
Having just bought a new car a week earlier, the stunned woman said she felt the urgency of the demand called for immediate action, and acted quickly to avoid the shame.
Only after a chat with her boss, were her suspicions increased. She reported the case as fraud, and the Barclays Bank Fraud team are investigating.
The callers spoke with an Asian dialect. Ms Ajoku says she still wonders how they would have known she had such funds to pay immediately, as it would be pointless calling people who can’t meet the immediate demands of the crooks. The possibility she was a targeted victim is one of those being explored, but she has no clue who would set her up so cruelly.
Warning
Ms Ajoku says she wants to warn others about the dangers of falling for this kind of fraudulent move. She told The eye of media.Com:
”They cornered me and asked me to speak to them in a private room otherwise I will face a charge. I listened and I believed they were legit. I was given a case number: 892241671
Then an arrest ID: 248/1965
I was told that if this payment isn’t made, the case will be taken to the Federal court, guilty case I will have to pay a total of £45,000
I believe my biggest fear was the thought of being arrested. The red flags where all there but I didn’t see it.
I was then told that I had not paid my tax during the period of 2018 – 2020. She wouldn’t tell me what employment this was and she could only tell me that the amount owed was £1, 983.
She claimed that they had sent me several letters from the HMRC and that they don’t understand why I haven’t contacted them. She said it was too late now and that I had to make payment as the matter had been sent to court.
I asked them about the number they were calling me as it was : 01517182183 number.. She then immediately called me back with the HMRC number from website. I had no idea they could mimic numbers. I was told to the HMRC website to see the number… Which was the same.
Transfer
I was then told to transfer money to them.. Firstly I was told that they don’t take payment via Barclays or nationwide but I had to transfer the amount in small amount to the (revolut app) account which I had create. It started off with small amounts of £1989 so that I can prevent the arrest and I was told I will get the money back then I was asked to send another small amount to add up to £3600.
I was then given reference number of: hmrj, phmj.. Etc.. Basically jibbsrish!! I was told that I will see the court case after making this payment and that I will see my solicitor to discuss this further… and once again that I will receive the money back once paid. After completing this.
”Finally, I was passed over to another Asian man who said I had to pay another £4,000. At this rate, my feet were numb and I was in shock It was obvious they were scammers. I didn’t know what else to do. The man had such he was laughing on the phone saying if I don’t make this payment I won’t win the case…. I hung up! It was obvious I was an easy target!.
A spokesperson from Barclays bank said: ”We take fraud prevention very seriously, no bank does more in raising consumer awareness on how scams operate and how consumers can protect themselves from becoming a victim
‘The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prevents us from commenting on this specific case until we have been provided with a signed letter of authority from the customer giving permission for this matter to be discussed with you”.
Ms Ajoku satisfied an earlier requirement from the Barclays press office to send an email with her account number authorising Barclays to discuss her case and why it was taking so long.