Scam victim lost parents' £25,000 life savings in sickening new con

A scam victim lost his elderly parents' life savings when an 'evil' crook pretended to be a Scotland Yard police detective in a sickening new con. 

Semi-retired Jonathan Byrne, 63, has barely slept and says he feels sick to his stomach after being duped into handing over nearly £25,000. 

The sophisticated con saw scammers posing as 'articulate Detective Lee Mason from Holborn police station', who spoke with a city banker accent, and a member of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

The marathon phone call lasted nearly four hours during which Mr Byrne was 'hypnotised' into transferring large sums of cash.

But in fact there was no Detective Lee Mason, and the whole thing was a sick con.  

Mr Byrne realised to his horror he had been scammed when he put the phone down, but he bravely confronted the swindler when they called hours later to try and take even more cash as he told him: 'You are evil.' 

He ended up making 15 transactions totalling £24,941.36 and the impact on Mr Byrne's life since has been devastating as he is forced to come out of semi-retirement.

The loving son lives in fear it will kill his sick father, 90, if he were to find out, but his friends and family have rallied around him in support with his 87-year-old mother providing comfort. 

He told MailOnline he is planning to seek medical help to come to terms with his ordeal having felt ashamed, embarrassed, and initially suicidal about what happened to him. 

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'At first I literally didn't sleep for about three or four nights, I couldn't eat, and I felt sick constantly,' he told MailOnline. 

'You feel sick and anxious. I couldn't stop crying. Mum has been beyond fantastic, she said, "Jonathan, was anybody standing there with a knife at your throat?" And I said, no. She said "well, that's the most important thing. Forget about the money".'

He added: 'I fell incredibly guilty that I am the cause of £25,000 disappearing from their bank account.'

The scam began at 4pm on September 10 when the former COO of a professional engineering institution received a call from a withheld number. 

Scammers convinced him to believe he was being contacted by Detective Lee Mason from Holborn police station who told him a 'Sarah Wiggins' had been arrested that morning.

He was told officers had found his and 20 other people's financial records in a notebook she owned.

Mr Byrne instantly searched Google for the station's phone number and asked to ring back, but he was told he was being called from the fraud department who do not accept incoming calls. 

He was given a crime reference number and 'Dt Mason's' badge number, and was convinced further the hustle was real when the fake cop reeled off detailed information about accounts he had held dating back five years. 

'He had a very engaging, convincing tone about himself - a very professional tone,' Mr Byrne said. 'He called me sir, and I think it was the next guy that at some point I said, "you don't need to call me, sir. Please call me Jonathan".

'When somebody who is claiming to be a policeman sounds credible, he has given you his badge number, he has given me a crime reference number, and then you think this is real.

'He is reading out financial information about you and it changes you from becoming normally suspicious, as anybody might be, or skeptical, as anybody might be. That then begins to convince you that this is real.'

Within seconds of ending the call after being told someone from the FCA would be contacting him to secure his money, the phone rang again. 

It was this quickness in between calls that Mr Byrne said meant he didn't have time to stop and think about what was happening. 

'Literally, within three seconds somebody else called me back. He said his name was "Mason", and I thought... two Masons? That sort of raised a bit of a red flag, but he then picks up the whole story of we've been informed by the team at Holborn Police Station.

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'Another worry that went through my head was I said to him "it's really strange. I've got these calls. You're both very articulate." And he said to me, "what does that mean?" 

'At that point, I absolutely at that point, should have said if this guy doesn't know what the word articulate means then...

'But the rest of his conversation was so convincing and detailed that that thought sort of was cast out of my mind.' 

Over the next few hours My Byrne was guided into transferring large lumps of money from his mother and father's Virgin Money account into his Chase bank and then into his Revolut account. 

From there, the heartless swindler told him 'the best place to protect his money' was to sweep it across into a Revolut 'safe pocket' (a money management tool).

Little did Mr Byrne know this was all part of a ploy by the trickster in order to get his hands on tens of thousands of pounds.  

He was even told beforehand about Revolut's scam warnings that would appear on his screen and was 'mentally pushed through' to override them. 

'I was quite anxious, and I said to him several times... I must have challenged him about three times about being able to call him back direct,' Mr Byrne said. 

'I challenged him about how he had access to all such detailed information, even though he was calling from allegedly the Financial Conduct Authority. 

'And each time his answer about calling him back was that he was from the fraud department and you can't call me back.' 

The crook then set up a series of money transfers through MoneyGram, Remitly, Profee and a personal account making Mr Byrne believe they would be used to move the money into a 'pocket'. 

The scammer then emptied his Revolut account.

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The fraudster's spell was only broken when Mr Byrne's Chase bank intervened to block any further money transfers. 

He said: 'That is what broke my hold with him and I came off the phone and I thought immediately, "you've been scammed". That was a whole scam.' 

Feeling panicked after he realised the horror of what had just happened, Mr Byrne said he immediately asked Revolut to block the money from being taken but by then it was too late.

So far he says every avenue he has gone down to try and get it back has ended in his claims being rejected by Revolut, Chase, and Virgin Money.  

He has now lodged an appeal to the Financial Ombudsman and has reported the con to Action Fraud.

Claire Webb, acting director of Action Fraud, said the report 'is currently being assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau at the City of London Police'.

Revolut told MailOnline Mr Byrne had unfrozen his card when the bank stepped in. 

He says he believes it could have been the scammers.

'We are very sorry to hear about Mr Byrne's case, or any instance where our customers are targeted by ruthless and highly sophisticated criminals,' a Revolut spokesperson said. 

'Revolut provided Mr Byrne with extensive and targeted impersonation scam specific warnings designed solely designed to "break the spell" of scammers and fraudsters and froze the card due to perceived risk. 

'Unfortunately, Revolut's interventions were not heeded and the customer unfroze their card and we subsequently processed the transactions in line with our legal obligations and our customer's instructions.

'Revolut is deeply concerned that large numbers of frauds are being enabled across the industry by criminals using fake and spoofed phone calls. 

'Revolut will never phone you about your account security without first confirming via our secure in-app chat. If customers are in doubt, we encourage them to reach out to us via in-app chat for support.'

A Chase spokesperson said: 'We have a great deal of sympathy for anyone who has been a victim of a scam like this, and we appreciate how distressing this experience must have been for Mr Byrne. 

'While we will always assist our customers in the recovery of their funds as best we can, on this occasion Mr Byrne transferred money from Chase to their own account with another banking provider, and it was from there that funds were transferred to the fraudster. 

'Our guidance to customers is that if they receive an unexpected call from someone asking you to move your money to keep it safe – they should hang up and report it to their bank immediately.' 

A Virgin Money spokesperson said: 'Protecting our customers and their accounts is our top priority, and we have a range of measures in place to safeguard against fraud and scams. 

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'We processed Mr Byrne's payment to his son's account at Chase Bank as requested, which is an account he has previously transferred money to multiple times, and the funds were then transferred from Chase Bank to Revolut. 

'It was payments from his Revolut account that were fraudulent, but unfortunately we had no knowledge of those payments or ability to influence them.'

Met Police said people should stop and call 101 if they are ever unsure they have been contacted by a genuine officer. 

'Unfortunately, there have been occasions when fraudsters have posed as police officers, both in person and on the phone, to trick people into giving them personal information and defraud them of money,' a Scotland Yard spokesperson said. 

'If one of our officers contacts you in person, they'll show you their police warrant card. This is proof of their identity and authority.

'Remember if you're unsure about whether the person you're dealing with is a genuine police officer – stop – and call us on 101 to check their identity.

'In an emergency always call 999.'