
The female was duped by fraudsters and lost £13,000 in a QR code scam at the train station.
It is presumed that scam artists have concealed a legitimate code with one of their own at Thornaby Station's parking lot.
This caused her to be directed to an illegitimate website which enabled them to transfer funds and card details, thus leading to the elderly woman (71 years of age) losing thousands of pounds.
In September, TransPennine Express eliminated all QR codes from its station car parks after encountering reports of scams like these from all over the nation.
The national fraud reporting centre in the UK has investigated approximately 1,200 QR scams in the past three years, with one such occurrence taking place in Thornaby, north-east England.
In August, the anonymous victim employed the code; then, her bank managed to obstruct a series of illegitimate payments. Following this, the perpetrators called her pretending to be financial institution representatives.
By referring to real trading, they managed to convince her it was valid and collected enough data to incur an enormous sum in her name, such as a loan of £7,500 that was taken out right away.
They enabled online banking, updated her address, and requested new cards be issued.
For months, the victim has been dealing with what has been described as a "logistical nightmare" while waiting for her credit card to be released from being frozen.
She declared that she would not be employing a QR code ever again, as it had been her first time using one.
When the fraudster called, he was extremely convincing, and by referencing payments made to and from my account that I was familiar with, it gave me a false sense of security.
While I was still on the line, he accessed my accounts as if he were me, and obtained a loan within 20 minutes.
Since then, the woman has had difficulty trusting anyone.
She exclaimed with dismay, "It's unbelievable how I got taken in! All those waking hours and countless conversations with my banks to fix the mess!"
I couldn't access my accounts, but luckily I had another credit card to get by. Without that, as well as aid from my son, I'm not sure what I would have done.
VirginMoney informed the BBC that they had canceled the loan and repaid any fraudulent transactions.
A spokesperson reported that £4,700 had been stolen by the fraudsters, yet other attempts had been prevented.
She declared that the organisation had implemented measures to secure the woman from any future problems, such as amending the safety settings on her accounts.
The BBC has been given exclusive access to statistics showing Action Fraud receives hundreds of crime reports annually connected to QR codes.
Action Fraud mentioned that over the first nine months of 2023, they have received more than 400 reports of offences, which is substantially more than the number of 112 which they had received in 2020.
QR, which is short for "quick response", is recognizable by its black and white squares. This two-dimensional barcode can be scanned by a mobile device.
Businesses frequently employ them for the purpose of guiding people to items such as app downloads, payment systems, social media pages, menus, and listings of events. “The outlook for the UK economy is uncertain, and banks are preparing for all potential outcomes.”
UK Finance, a banking trade association, advises that given the uncertain state of the UK economy, banks are taking measures to be ready for any eventuality.
The woman notified the police and station personnel about the scam. A representative from Cleveland Police stated that they directed her to Action Fraud.
TransPennine Express, the manager of Thornaby station, has since taken down QR codes found on payment signs at the 14 car parks under its management, holding a total of 1,300 car-parking spaces. We're pushing our customers and visitors to be vigilant in their use of scanning QR codes."
Chris Jackson, the managing director, insisted that customers should abstain from scanning QR codes in the car parks. He explained that they “moved swiftly and comprehensively inspected all car-park signs” and were “persuading customers and visitors to be mindful with their utilization of QR codes.”
No fraudulent stickers were detected and no complaints had been logged in our customer service database nor had any been posted to social media.
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