I was conned out of £50k and couldn’t believe the sneaky way scammers tricked me, admits Coronation Street star
A FORMER Coronation Street and his wife have warned of the surprising ways hackers scammed their bank account.
Adam Rickitt rose to fame as the original Nick Tilsley in the ITV soap and has now issued a stern warning after his bank account was targeted and scammed out of £50,000.
Adam told of his heartache when appearing on Good Morning Britian alongside his wife Katy, a news reporter.
Speaking to Susanna Reid and Ed Balls on the morning show, ex-Corrie star Adam revealed they fell foul of the targeted attack after the fraudsters sent him a text message and claimed to be Barclays bank.
Adam told how the text alerted him to ‘suspicious activity’ on the account before recieving a call from an 0845 number who alleged to be Barclay’s fraud department.
Speaking from home, the actor told the hosts: They were ringing me from the Barclays fraudline, which I did check. I naively didn’t know that you could ghost financial institutions.”
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He added: “Not only are you called from that number, but if you hang up on them and redial it from the same phone, they will still pick it up.”
Adam alleged the extremes the scammers went to as he said they listed to him all of his recent purchases in a bid to make him feel secure that he was speaking to the real Barclays bank.
“They literally listed the exact places we have been and made cash withdrawals.”
It is understood Adam fell victim to a scan known as Authorised Push Payments which involves fraudsters deceiving the payer in order for them to pay them a sum of money.
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Barclays has since refunded the soap star whilst launching an investigation into how the scam erupted and how his details were accessed.
Adam’s wife Katy pleaded with viewers at home about what to do if they find themselves in similar situations.
The journalist said: “So if your bank rings you, hang up the phone and call the number on the back of your card so you 100 percent know you are getting through to your bank. We’ve learnt that the hard way.”