Summary
People have been tricked by fake online banking apps being used by thieves to pretend to pay for items in person. After showing the seller that the payment has been "successful" on their app, they take the goods but the money never arrives in the seller's bank account.
Key Facts
- A man named Anthony Rudd lost £1,000 worth of tools to a scam using a fake banking app.
- The scam involves people pretending to pay for items with a bank transfer using a fake app.
- About 500 reports of these types of scams have been reported to Action Fraud in the past three years.
- Some of these fake banking apps used to be on the Google Play store, but have now been removed.
- The BBC found that some of these apps can still be downloaded from other places on the internet.
- Anthony invited a man to his workshop to buy the tools, the man pretended to pay, and then left with the tools.
- Anthony quit his job because the scam made him feel very upset.
- The police have not been able to find the man who scammed Anthony.
- A man named John Reddock also got scammed the same way while trying to sell a gold bracelet.
