Every day, François Vissers, 89, works as a courier to supplement his small pension and be able to make ends meet. But a heinous act caused him to lose all his savings. It was a fake bank employee who scammed the Belgian on Friday. “My hard-earned money. It all started suddenly,” sadly testifies François.
“When I was at home, I received a phone call on my landline. A person with a Dutch accent told me that she was an ING employee and asked me if I had lost my bank card,” explains François. But he directly informed the person on the phone that he hadn’t lost his card.
The fraudster then asked François if he had any other bank cards. The octogenarian took out his other two cards and put the three on the table. But the fraudster asked François to do some checking. He asked her to turn on her computer and download the “anydesk” application. “I had to give him the number I saw on my screen afterwards. A little later, the ING logo appeared on my computer screen with my bank accounts on it. At that time, he took control of my computer remotely,” explains François.
But while François was following the “bank clerk”’s mouse from a distance as it moved across his screen, he noticed that the amount in his savings account had suddenly fallen sharply. Of the 9,505 euros he had, there was already only 2,665 euros left! Suddenly, the sum of 6,840 euros had disappeared.
“The money also disappeared from my checking account. In total, it is more than 8,000 euros. My hard-earned money for which, despite my age of 89, I still work every day as a courier for a transport company, ”laments the octogenarian. “I can’t go to a shelter because I wouldn’t be able to make ends meet financially. But then I always lose all my fucking money this way,” he gets angry.
“I have no idea how the scammers got to me. They certainly knew that I am an ING customer. Maybe they saw my bank card when I paid at Aldi,” explains François.