Gloria Hunniford says bank fraud was second time she was targeted

Gloria Hunniford, whose bank account was emptied of £120,000 by fraudsters, has revealed that it wasn't the first time she was targeted by scammers.

The 76-year-old host of Rip Off Britain told Loose Women yesterday that criminals had tried to steal from her account shortly before.

"Santander called me about a year ago to tell me someone had tried to open my account," she said. "We had to take measures to change account numbers." Shortly afterwards fraudsters were more successful.

Last week, a court heard how a woman presented herself at a branch of Santander, claiming to be Ms Hunniford, with two people she said were her daughter and grandson.

The woman, who had a fake driving licence and bank card in the presenter's name, said she wanted to make her 'grandson' a signatory on the account. £120,000 was stolen later that day.

Eighteen-year-old student Alan Dowie, of Oxted, Surrey was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence for his part in the fraud, but the other two criminals have yet to be caught. Santander has refunded the money.

Ms Hunniford now says she plans to tackle bank fraud on Rip Off Britain.

"Banks are supposed to be very aware of unusual activity, whether it's someone scamming an 89-year-old woman who takes her down to the bank and says: 'You need to draw out £10,000'," she says.

"They are supposed to raise the alarm. I feel very strongly about it. You may think your money is safe in a bank but it's not, so be over-diligent. I'm mystified as to how my money was just handed out to people."

She added: "It's easier for four strangers to go into the bank and get my money and get it all signed over to them and when I ring through I have to answer about eight or nine really obscure security questions."

While banks continually warn us to be careful with our personal information and suspicious of everybody, there's nothing Ms Hunniford could have done to protect herself.

The fraudster was able to impersonate Ms Hunniford because the young cashier didn't know what she looked like.

"I had to Google Gloria Hunniford and even if I passed her on the street I wouldn't recognise her because she's not from my time," she told the court.

And unless we're more recognisable than Ms Hunniford, any of us could have fallen victim to the same scam.

The bank has apologised, and says it's made 'significant' improvements to its processes to try and make sure nothing similar happens again.