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- Harrow-based accountants targeted by phone fraudster
- Duped them with knowledge about their business bank account
- NatWest refuses to refund firm saying it shouldn't have given details out
Another small business has fallen victim to a fraudster going by the false name 'Simon Fraser' who posed as a member of NatWest staff in a bogus call from the bank - this time swiping £80,500 from the business account. Charterhouse Accountants, based in Harrow, Middlesex, were duped in a repeat of a scam that This is Money has previously reported on. Once again, NatWest has insisted the fraud is the responsibility of the victim and refused to cover the losses. On 24 April this year, Micky Ackenson, a partner at Charterhouse was forwarded a phone call by his staff from a man calling himself ‘Simon Fraser’ claiming to be from Bankline, the business banking service from NatWest. In a previous case covered by This is Money, a fraudster using the same name managed to con one reader of their savings earlier in the year.
Micky, alongside David White, another partner at Charterhouse, put the caller on speakerphone after being told a suspected fraudulent payment had been made from their business account. Micky was asked to confirm his user and customer ID along with his full name – something, the pair say, happens when the real Bankline calls......Read more here