The three numbers that could help your own dad foil the ‘bank manager’ scammers

My dad is not the sort of person you would expect to be caught up in a scam. He’s sharp, sceptical and perfectly capable of telling a snake-oil salesman where to go. Which is exactly why what happened to him should frighten all of us.

One evening, he answered a call from someone claiming to be from his bank’s fraud team. The man, who gave his name as Malcolm, was well spoken and seemed professional and friendly.

Over the next three hours, my dad was drawn into what he believed was a live fraud investigation. He was told that his phone may have been compromised and that the bank needed his help to secure his accounts.

There were “test” transactions and even a WhatsApp video call, complete with a bank logo on screen, all of it designed to gain his trust and access to his accounts.

The second “manager” whom my dad dealt with told him not to contact his bank and to wait for a call back the next morning.

It was only later, as my dad was lying awake in bed and replaying that request in his mind, that the horrible truth began to dawn on him. He spent the rest of the night contacting his real banks and locking down his accounts. Thankfully, no money was taken, but it was a close call.

Why didn’t he realise sooner? “Once I missed that initial moment to step back, it felt as if I was under their spell,” my dad told me. “Then I couldn’t change course and I had to see it through, as if it was sunk capital.”

When I shared his experience online, it went viral. Thousands of people got in touch to say they had experienced something similar. What worried me most was how many didn’t know about 159.

It’s a secure hotline you can use to check whether a call from your bank is genuine. Hang up, dial 159, name your bank and you’ll be put through to its fraud team.

I had told my dad to do exactly this just weeks before. But in the moment, it just didn’t occur to him. That’s the problem. Five years after it was introduced, 159 is still not second nature.

There is also some confusion about how to use the hotline. Some people think you need to use a different phone or that you must wait before calling, in case fraudsters are still on the line. In reality you can hang up and call 159 straight away, even from the same landline.

If 159 is the frontline defence against fraud, why isn’t it everywhere? On bank cards, in adverts, on hold messages, drilled into us like every other emergency number.

Until these three numbers are burned into the public memory, do yourself a favour: don’t rely on your instincts in the moment – get 159 in your head.

Safe to say, my dad is just short of having it tattooed.

Photography by Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images