Hey everyone,
something pretty serious happened to me yesterday and I’m hoping someone here might have experience or advice.
I received a call from a number that matched exactly the official phone number of my bank. At first, this didn’t seem suspicious.
To be safe, I hung up and called my bank myself using the official number. I ended up in the normal waiting queue.
While I was still on hold, I suddenly received a callback – again showing the exact same bank number. I picked up, thinking it was part of the normal process.
The person on the phone sounded very professional and told me there was a suspicious transaction that needed to be stopped. They guided me through a “verification” step, which I unfortunately completed.
In hindsight, that was obviously the scam.
Result: €4,700 gone.
I’m aware that I made a mistake and I’m really frustrated with myself. But the whole setup was extremely convincing and well executed.
So my questions:
• Is there any realistic way to track or identify the scammers?
• Has anyone experienced something similar with caller ID spoofing like this?
• Would it make sense to analyze the original link that may have led them to target me?
• Are cases like this ever actually investigated, or are the scammers usually based abroad with no real chance of being caught?
I’ve already contacted my bank and will file a police report.
If anyone has advice on who else to contact (e.g. cybersecurity experts, specific organizations, etc.), I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks a lot 🙏