Absolute Radio star Andy Bush has revealed his devastated parents were scammed out of their life savings from a scam advert which included a photograph of Martin Lewis
A radio star’s parents have been conned out of their life savings. Absolute Radio DJ Andy Bush has revealed that his parents fell victim to a crypto scammer advert, which included a picture of Martin Lewis.
The broadcaster said his Dad saw an advert promoting an “investment scheme” with a promise of 8% on his cash. However, this figure proved too good to be true. Andy’s parents were told that their life savings, £20,000, would be placed into accounts overseas and later converted to cryptocurrency.
Andy’s parents were approached by somebody allegedly called John, who went on to gain their trust. The man went on to phone Andy’s parents every day for several weeks.
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He said: “I feel like the inability to communicate with a human being has thrust people into the arms of scammers who will quite happily call them three or four times a day and have a conversation.
“I think my parents thought: ‘Well, if we can speak to them on the phone, it’s got to be legit.'” He went on to explain to Sky News that “John” had initially applied a little bit of pressure on Andy’s parents.
His parents were later asked to download an application on their phones, but the application was monitoring their activity without their knowledge. Andy’s parents were told to first make small transfers from their bank so it could be “invested”.
Another app, which appeared to be a cryptocurrency exchange, showed their balances rising. However, this was completely fake. During the scam, Andy’s parents were asked to transfer larger sums of money.
Andy’s dad was also pressured into signing up for Revolut, an online bank which is now registered in the UK, in his own name, to facilitate some transfers. His parents lost around £20,000 in total, with “John” coaching them on what to say if their banks questioned where the cash was going.
He says his parents were “in over their heads,” and didn’t tell anybody due to feeling humiliated. The scam came to light when Andy’s parents asked if they could borrow a huge sum of money. She explained she’d been told that £5,000 needed to be transferred so they could withdraw and even access their funds.
Andy, however, says he’s angry at his parents bank, TSB, who he claims didn’t do more to prevent the scam from escalating. “They’ve been in to see TSB – and TSB seem to say: ‘Well it’s nothing to do with us, we covered all bases.’ I disagree – I think they could have done a hell of a lot more,” he said.
TSB told the outlet that under rules set out by the Payment Systems Regulator, liability for issuing refunds is the responsibilty of the bank that sent the cash to the fraudster’s account. However, after Andy’s family instructed a lawyer, John struck again.
Shortly after instructing a legal firm, his parents recieved another message claiming that their cash had been found abroad and would be released if they sent a further £4,000.
In a statement, TSB said: “We were sorry to learn of the couple’s financial loss – and we have checks in place to warn customers of higher value transfers. However, the alleged fraud did not take place from a TSB account. The fraudulent payments were made by a different bank from an account in the customer’s name. Under the regulator’s reimbursement rules, the bank that made the fraudulent transfers is liable for refund and recovery.”
Andy’s father had also passed the checks to open a Revolut account, including a video selfie. The bank said that Andy’s father was shown several warnings highlighting that the transfers may have been a scam. They went on to add that additional transfers were blocked and his account was offboarded due to suspicious activity and “remaining funds were returned to another account under his control.”
The bank said in a statement: “We urge our customers to avoid so-called ‘investment opportunities’, particularly those originating on social media platforms regarding cryptocurrencies, and ensure they undertake extensive due diligence to establish the legitimacy of any opportunities prior to making investment decisions.
“We also urge our customers to always take stock of our warnings and respond to any interventions truthfully, as they are there to help protect their money.”
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