A MUM has revealed how she was scammed out thousands by making one big mistake on social media.
BBC's Dirty Rotten Scammers welcomed Paula to the show, who explained she would "never be the same again" after the ordeal.
A very sophisticated operation saw scammers call up Paula, claiming to be from the NatWest fraud unit.
The busy parent was told someone had attempted to buy a Merce
On BBC’s Dirty Rotten Scammers, Paula explained she was targeted in a carefully timed scam. She received a call at 6pm, a busy time for her, as she was dealing with dinner and bedtimes for her kids.
The call claimed to be from the NatWest fraud unit, and told Paula her card had been used in an attempt to buy a Mercedes in Manchester.
Due to her card supposedly being used in the scam, the man on the phone said he would set up a "safe account" for Paula, totalling £5,000.
Though suspicious at first, she explained: "He was so calm, so precise. There was no reason to doubt it.”
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She asked the caller to prove he was from NatWest, and he said he would call her back from the phone number which written on the back on her debit card.
As reassuring as this seemed, it's a clever tactic often used by scammers called 'number spoofing'.
Paula explained: “The guy said we will send you a new card in the post, Monday or Tuesday.
“By the Wednesday, I waited for a card to come, but nothing. I phoned the number, and it just rang.
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“I felt sad. Sad that someone had done that, because when you meet people who are calm and reassuring, you assume they want the best for you. Then I felt cross with myself for not picking up on it.”
Thankfully, Paula contacted NatWest directly and was able to get her money back.
However, she's been left scarred from the experience.
Dirty Rotten Scammers hosts Michelle and Mavis enlisted the help of ethical hackers to figure out exactly how Paula had been targeted.
The hackers found that the mum was very active on social media, and she revealed a great deal of her life on her public profiles.
They also managed to find the names of her father, partner and children, as well as their addresses.
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This wasn't all, as Paula's details had also been exposed during a data breach, along with some of her passwords.
Dirty Rotten Scammers appears weekdays at 10am until Friday, June 24.
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