Overview
- Samantha Bradshaw, 38, lost £11,000 in October 2025 after callers posing as NatWest staff and a Merseyside sergeant sent a courier to her Derbyshire home to collect her bank cards using a safe word.
- The scammers built trust with crime-reference numbers and a number that appeared to match Merseyside Police on Google, then kept her on the phone for hours while directing password changes.
- During the call, they had her log into the banking app and tap to approve texts she was told were tests, including a £4,000 Selfridges charge, which actually authorised real transfers.
- Her husband, calling from abroad on a child’s phone, warned that money had been swept into one account and drained, and the fraudsters immediately hung up.
- NatWest refunded the full amount four days later, and Derbyshire Police now stress that real staff never ask for PINs or cards, urge using 159 or a trusted number to verify calls, and advise reporting to the national service Report Fraud.