A woman has opened up about a series of misjudgments that led to her life savings being stolen after her husband received a suspicious phone call urging immediate action.
Fraudsters have long been a threat, and it remains crucial for individuals to be cautious of their tactics aimed at stealing money.
One TikTok user shared the story of how she and her husband fell victim to an elaborate scam.
Amelia Mandeville-Marinaro, aged 28, recounted the incident and acknowledged that she and her husband should have realized something was amiss.
With emotions running high, she emphasized that she created the video to help others avoid falling into similar traps and to learn from their errors.
In a TikTok video posted on her account, @winnieandminnie0, she stated: “Today, we were scammed which meant that we’ve lost our savings which is, you know, scary because I’m on maternity leave but I wanted to do this video so that other people learn from our mistakes.”
“I know people are going to be like, ‘why are you so stupid, it’s obvious it’s a scam’ but I think sometimes, in the moments, you don’t realise it and I’m not doing this video to say we weren’t stupid.”
She recounted that her husband, Pete, received a call from a number with no caller ID, claiming that ‘someone’s hacked your account, we need to act fast’.
Pete texted Amelia about the issue, saying he was handling it over the phone.
He requested her bank details, which she sent, though she found it odd since she believed the bank should already have this information.
Her unease grew when Pete mentioned she needed to approve a transaction as the caller was transferring their money to another account for ‘safety’.
Sensing something was off, she checked their online account and saw a message indicating that the bank was not contacting them.
Pete suggested this was a tactic by the bank to confuse the alleged hacker accessing their account.
Despite her reservations, she authorized the transaction and immediately regretted it, saying the scenario felt ‘dodgy’.
Amelia admitted, ‘we have just paid someone all of our savings and it was, it was silly, it was stupid of us’ before pausing the video due to emotional distress.
Pete mentioned that the scammers had extensive knowledge of their account details and seemed highly persuasive.
Responding to inquiries on social media, Amelia mentioned that the bank is investigating the matter, and they remain hopeful about recovering their funds.