Banking fraud leaves man without £3,000

Online banking may be a useful tool when you're on the go and need to check your balance or move money around quickly but it can also be very risky when it comes to fraud.

One man, Patrick Cornwell, was the victim of a banking scam that left him more than £3,000 out of pocket.

The scammers contacted him by telephone and he said: "They came up as the bank because the bank's number is in my phone book.

"So I answered it believing it was the bank before anything and the lady on the other end, who was very well spoken, said 'there's been a case of fraudulent transaction on your account'."

Mr Cornwell explained that the woman outlined that it was a debit card fraud that had gone wrong, and she also mentioned a card number that he says he 'part recognised'.

The woman on the end of the phone then gave Mr Cornwell a choice of two ways to resolve the issue.

She said he could go to the bank in person with two forms of identification or he could give her a code he could generate in the mobile banking app.

He says that the confidence tricks they played on him convinced him that he was talking to an official employee of his bank.

The woman then managed to get hold of Mr Cornwell's mobile phone information through his provider, which added another blow to the incident.

When he subsequently tried to call the bank to say he thought he had been scammed, he found out his mobile phone had been cut off.

He says: "So I was panicking and the adrenaline started going and I knew what had happened.

"But it transpired later on that they had used my mobile to verify a genuine text from the bank asking if the transaction was genuine."

It was during this time that the scammers had managed to successfully siphon off and authorise the transfer of more than £3,000 out of his account.

Are you worried about falling victim to a scam? Take a look at our dedicated 'scams' page on AOL Money to find out more about how you can avoid this happening to you.