Fraud victims are being failed by justice system, warn charities
Joan Holdaway, 85, shared her experience as part of the BBC's Scam Safe Week from 22 to 28 November.She had £1,000 stolen after being bombarded with phonecalls from fraudsters using photos of celebrities to promote their investment scam online."It was very upsetting," said Ms Holdaway. "All I kept thinking about was how I was going to eke out the money that I'd still got. Then I kept thinking 'I'm not going to get this back, I know I'm not.'"She contacted the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, Action Fraud, which put her in touch with Cleveland Police. Officers referred her to the Victim Care and Advice Service which helped her to be reimbursed by her bank under fraud rules introduced just over a year ago. Known as the mandatory reimbursement requirement it obliges banks to refund most victims of push payment fraud - when victims are tricked and manipulated into transferring money to criminals themselves.No one has been prosecuted in Ms Holdaway's case and she told the BBC the emotional and mental impact had been tremendous."It's made me very, very suspicious. You just cannot sleep properly and it's just on your mind all the time. All I was doing was avoiding ever speaking to anyone again."I don't think you ever get over it really... I think it stays with you... and you wonder anybody that you don't know, are they who they say they are? It's really dreadful."
