Many of us have heard the warnings about phone and internet scams targeting seniors.

However, not a lot would think they or a loved one could fall victim to a scam at a car park while on the way to the local supermarket.

Jackie Bullen shared her mum’s experience to raise awareness after the elderly woman fell victim to a clever con artist near her home.

Jackie's mother, who is in her 90s and lives in South Cambridgeshire, was about to shop at her local Tesco supermarket in Royston, Hertfordshire for groceries.

An elderly woman was scammed at the car park of her local supermarket. Image source: Freepik.

According to Jackie, her mum parked into a disabled bay and was putting her groceries into her car when a 'very well-spoken charming man' approached her and claimed he noticed another vehicle backed into her car and that incident dislodged her bumper.

As her mum checked for any issues, the smooth-talking scammer took advantage of the distraction.

Once she got home, she realised her purse, which had £120 ($231 AUD) in cash, and her mobile phone were no longer in her bag.

'Initially, she panicked and thought maybe she had left it in the supermarket,' Jackie said.

'She called me from her landline and said she was driving back [to the store].'

'They told her they thought it was stolen and it was a known scam.'

Jackie tried to cancel her mum’s credit cards, however, each call took at least 30 minutes.

'It became an absolute nightmare because we couldn't get through the calls quickly enough. It became far more completed than we could ever have expected,' Jackie shared.

Over £5,000 ($9,625 AUD) was drained from her account within an hour of the incident, and significant amounts were stolen using her other credit cards.

Thousands have also been spent on Apple store purchases which, according to her daughter, was not a 'normal spend' for her mum.

Her credit card companies have refunded some of the money to her account. However, the daughter hopes that more could be done to help those who have been scammed.

'Credit card companies should have an emergency number that you call and they immediately block the card,' she said.

A finance spokesperson shared their thoughts on the incident, saying: 'The banking and finance industry is committed to stopping these terrible crimes and supporting victims.'

'Banks have dedicated fraud facilities to help customers, and victims should immediately contact them for help.'

'If unauthorised fraud does occur, victims are also protected and data shows 98 per cent of cases are reimbursed.'

Key Takeaways

• An elderly woman in her 90s was scammed out of thousands in a supermarket car park.
  
• The scam involved the thief distracting the victim by claiming her car had been hit, and while the victim checked the car, her purse containing credit cards, cash, and her mobile phone were stolen.
  
• Within an hour of the scam, £5,000 ($9,625 AUD) had been taken from her John Lewis account and significant amounts from her other credit cards.
  
• Her daughter, Jackie Bullen, is calling for credit card companies to have an emergency number to immediately block the card in case of theft or scam.
  

Members, have you heard of a similar scam happening at your local supermarket? Let us know in the comments below!

 

[Nichola]

So essentially this woman was targeted by a pickpocket. Moral is, I suppose, to hang on to your bag!
Online banking such as Netbank, gives you the ability to freeze your credit card immediately so the thieves can't use your account - this would have constituted some damage control. You would have to use someone else's phone or a computer to do it.

 

[AlanQ]

The banks and credit cards I have do have an immediately block ability, not much use if your phone is also stolen as the app is the quickest option to activate block. The Apple products (assuming) that they are connect to a telco will have a footprint that can then trace the location.

 

[magpie1]

I think that there are many people these days that feel they have been scammed when they go shopping at the Supermarket these days.....and that's using your credit cards yourself.

 

[Gsr]

Why would a 90 year old need multiple credit cards, and why would she have them all in her purse just to go shopping? Hubby and I don’t have any credit cards, we have never used them, if we can’t afford something we don’t buy it has always been our policy. When I go shopping I only ever take one card and a bit of cash with me. Our cards all have a $100 limit without a pin and we have a separate account for online purchases. We only have three cards we use, two from different banks for shopping, cash withdrawals, and one for online bills, shopping etc. money is transferred as required to this card. We have a block on our normal cards to prevent any online shopping using them. We also transfer money from our main bank account onto our cards before we go shopping, so there is never more than a few hundred on them. My online card has been scammed a couple of times between when I have transferred money and used it, scammers struck at the right time, but I have always been reimbursed and changed the card. Someone once paid their almost $500 electricity bill in Victoria, I’m in NSW, with my card. I found out the company name, contacted them, they reimbursed me and said the customer would be getting a letter from them about it, and a visit from the police as they reported it with the customers details given to the police. That person must have worked for a company I made an online purchase from to have scammed my card details so hopefully lost their job as well.

 

[Macarj]

So essentially this woman was targeted by a pickpocket. Moral is, I suppose, to hang on to your bag!
Online banking such as Netbank, gives you the ability to freeze your credit card immediately so the thieves can't use your account - this would have constituted some damage control. You would have to use someone else's phone or a computer to do it.

Yes I can freeze mine on line can be done in seconds no need to ring the bank then if I find it and it wasn't stolen I can just unfreeze it

 

[Iggydi]

We can do a lot of things in Australia regarding putting a stop on credit and debit cards but obviously England are a bit slower or behind the times or just so busy they have a major time discrepancy as the daughter said she was on the phone for over half an hour to each of the companies.

 

[MariaG]

Many of us have heard the warnings about phone and internet scams targeting seniors.

However, not a lot would think they or a loved one could fall victim to a scam at a car park while on the way to the local supermarket.

Jackie Bullen shared her mum’s experience to raise awareness after the elderly woman fell victim to a clever con artist near her home.

Jackie's mother, who is in her 90s and lives in South Cambridgeshire, was about to shop at her local Tesco supermarket in Royston, Hertfordshire for groceries.

View attachment 33109

An elderly woman was scammed at the car park of her local supermarket. Image source: Freepik.

According to Jackie, her mum parked into a disabled bay and was putting her groceries into her car when a 'very well-spoken charming man' approached her and claimed he noticed another vehicle backed into her car and that incident dislodged her bumper.

As her mum checked for any issues, the smooth-talking scammer took advantage of the distraction.

Once she got home, she realised her purse, which had £120 ($231 AUD) in cash, and her mobile phone were no longer in her bag.

'Initially, she panicked and thought maybe she had left it in the supermarket,' Jackie said.

'She called me from her landline and said she was driving back [to the store].'

'They told her they thought it was stolen and it was a known scam.'

Jackie tried to cancel her mum’s credit cards, however, each call took at least 30 minutes.

'It became an absolute nightmare because we couldn't get through the calls quickly enough. It became far more completed than we could ever have expected,' Jackie shared.

Over £5,000 ($9,625 AUD) was drained from her account within an hour of the incident, and significant amounts were stolen using her other credit cards.

Thousands have also been spent on Apple store purchases which, according to her daughter, was not a 'normal spend' for her mum.

Her credit card companies have refunded some of the money to her account. However, the daughter hopes that more could be done to help those who have been scammed.

'Credit card companies should have an emergency number that you call and they immediately block the card,' she said.

A finance spokesperson shared their thoughts on the incident, saying: 'The banking and finance industry is committed to stopping these terrible crimes and supporting victims.'

'Banks have dedicated fraud facilities to help customers, and victims should immediately contact them for help.'

'If unauthorised fraud does occur, victims are also protected and data shows 98 per cent of cases are reimbursed.'

Key Takeaways

• An elderly woman in her 90s was scammed out of thousands in a supermarket car park.
• The scam involved the thief distracting the victim by claiming her car had been hit, and while the victim checked the car, her purse containing credit cards, cash, and her mobile phone were stolen.
• Within an hour of the scam, £5,000 ($9,625 AUD) had been taken from her John Lewis account and significant amounts from her other credit cards.
• Her daughter, Jackie Bullen, is calling for credit card companies to have an emergency number to immediately block the card in case of theft or scam.

Members, have you heard of a similar scam happening at your local supermarket? Let us know in the comments below!

Oh dear. This just brought back a vivid memory.
Some years ago, around 9pm, hubby and I were called to my in-laws home because dad had a major episode.
We rushed there, drove into the yard and raced straight into the home, and without thinking didn't lock the car.
While the ambos were inside with us, someone sneaked into the yard and found my handbag under the seat. Off they went with it and I was none the wiser until I went to get the bag out at the hospital.
So, there I was, in the hospital tag teaming with family to stop everything that needed stopping.
Fortunately, we have a list I created with all key contacts details in case something like this happens.
Hubby called it up on his phone and everything was done straight off the list,
In the end, they only had time to buy a carton of smokes before I stopped the card.
It pays to get something organised in readiness for times like this. The drama was watered down a bit because of the list. There would most likely be an app out there to do just that.
I'll never forget that day because we lost an amazing man in the middle of it all. It shows how some people look at every situation as an opportunity to do bad things.

 

[Iggydi]

Oh dear. This just brought back a vivid memory.
Some years ago, around 9pm, hubby and I were called to my in-laws home because dad had a major episode.
We rushed there, drove into the yard and raced straight into the home, and without thinking didn't lock the car.
While the ambos were inside with us, someone sneaked into the yard and found my handbag under the seat. Off they went with it and I was none the wiser until I went to get the bag out at the hospital.
So, there I was, in the hospital tag teaming with family to stop everything that needed stopping.
Fortunately, we have a list I created with all key contacts details in case something like this happens.
Hubby called it up on his phone and everything was done straight off the list,
In the end, they only had time to buy a carton of smokes before I stopped the card.
It pays to get something organised in readiness for times like this. The drama was watered down a bit because of the list. There would most likely be an app out there to do just that.
I'll never forget that day because we lost an amazing man in the middle of it all. It shows how some people look at every situation as an opportunity to do bad things.

Hopefully Karma catches up with the rotten sods that did that to you. What a stressful time for you on top of the stressful time you were going through.

 

[Ezzy]

I cannot understand why each call by the lady's daughter took more than 1/2 hour to execute.

 

[MariaG]

I cannot understand why each call by the lady's daughter took more than 1/2 hour to execute.

I'd say this may have been a situation of not knowing the right details, and, perhaps not having the authority to do this on behalf of mum.
There's always the "your call is important to us ... waiting, waiting...

 

[Ezzy]

I'd say this may have been a situation of not knowing the right details, and, perhaps not having the authority to do this on behalf of mum.
There's always the "your call is important to us ... waiting, waiting...

Thankyou @ MariaG. With Privacy Laws today & cutting staff to boost profits & inconvenience the public.

 

[Mark1]

We can do a lot of things in Australia regarding putting a stop on credit and debit cards but obviously England are a bit slower or behind the times or just so busy they have a major time discrepancy as the daughter said she was on the phone for over half an hour to each of the companies.

This happened to me last week. Nearly an hour on hold to Macquarie bank. Anything could have happened in that time.