A customer of The Bank of America had transferred £150,000 money to a website believing it to be a one-year fixed-rate bond. She later realized when it was up to maturity that it was a fraudulent account to which she lost her savings. The fraudsters trapped the money that she invested, and she was asked to verify her beneficiary account before refunding her matured investment.
Three days before making her first payment, she found that M&G, the parent company of prudential, issued a notice stating that the account to which she transferred the amount was fraudulent to Bank of America. They’ve also decided to refund her investment as banks are held liable for fraudulent activities on their name. Even after she found that account to be active
She was a victim of a clone investment scam. Similar website design, address, and firm reference Id made her believe them. They send all the brochures of the bank, which are linked to the actual bank website, to appear more promising. M&G said that only in rare cases are investment bonds offered in installments.Most of the cloned websites do have the https protocol. Https is a protocol followed by most secured websites. Make sure you always land a secured website to keep yourself away from clone investment scams.
Sometimes, scammers borrow accounts from an existing customer, making it difficult to identify fraudulent activities. Scammer websites won’t provide receipts for transactions, which is a clear sign of fraud. The Financial Conduct Authority regulator has warned that anyone can be fooled by a clone investment scam no matter how alert they are.
