A TECH-SAVVY York man who lost £12,000 in an investment scam that used images of famous TV stars as bait is warning others not to make the same mistake.

George Summerson, 41, who lives in Huntington and works in the Civil Service, was set to become a dad for the second time when he thought he’d found a legitimate way to make extra cash to support his growing family.

But instead he ended up out of pocket and devastated he’d been taken in by highly-organised criminals.

 

Mr Summerson, from York, spoke to an account manager and excitedly watched the profits grow. But when he tried to withdraw his money he realised he had been scammed.

“I was kicking myself,” he said. “I never thought this would happen to me.

“I know about internet security and I’m not elderly or vulnerable. I even alert my mum so she doesn’t fall for them.

“I know my way around a smartphone and people like me never think we’ll be targeted.”

But when he saw a Facebook advert that looked like a news article claiming ‘This Morning’ stars Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby had put money into an exciting investment scheme, he filled in an online form.

He said: “Someone called me soon after and talked to me through it all. I initially invested £250 and they set me up with an account manager to teach me the ropes.

“I invested another £2,000 and I was happy making a bit of money slowly. I then put in £5,000 and straight away I was making up to £50 within minutes.”

Mr Summerson spoke to his ‘account manager’, who used the name ‘Marcus’, daily through messages and phone calls.

He added: “I know when something seems too good to be true it probably is but it seemed so genuine. He kept saying how it’s my money, he can’t touch it and he doesn’t make money unless I do.”

By now Mr Summerson had built up a handsome profit but when he tried to withdraw this money everything came crashing down.

He was told if he wanted to withdraw his funds, which included his own investment of £12,250, he would need to pay 50 per cent of the total money back into the scheme.

Mr Summerson said: “My bank had questioned one of the transfers but Marcus told me banks will do this because they don’t want people buying crypto currency. I just relayed everything he told me.

“So when I alerted them that I’d been scammed, they advised me there was nothing they could do as they believed they had done everything possible to prevent it in the first place.

“They only compensated me in the end once CEL Solicitors got involved.”

Fraud lawyers at CEL Solicitors took his case to the Financial Ombudsman and managed to recoup more than £10,500 which Mr Summerson describes as a “big relief”.

He added: “Everyone needs to be careful online, some scams are so detailed that anyone can be a victim.”

Paul Hampson, an expert Fraud Solicitor and Managing Director at CEL Solicitors, said: “The level of sophistication in some scams is startling. Criminals are making defrauding people a full-time job, putting hours in a day to deceive people out of their hard-earned money.

“Fraudsters are building relationships and trust with their victims, which makes the con all the more distressing when the target learns the truth.

“It’s a difficult lesson to learn, especially when banks and other authorities don’t jump in to help right away, which is why legal support is often advised when you have fallen victim to a scam.

“In this particular case we were able to recover money from Mr Summerson’s bank on his behalf. We are seeing more and more money lost by victims using crypto currencies.

“It is like the wild west. We believe that the Crypto exchanges and platforms should be more heavily regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.”