Do not get scammed, that's easy

It is a very unfortunate situation, but recently I got scammed. I have paid a lot of money - emptied all of my savings and borrowed from my friends to get out of this situation. Although looking on a bright side, now I will know and share my experience. Hope you will not get into the same trouble as I did.

It happened recently, the scammers called me and said that I have criminal charges agents me. Don’t get me wrong, but usually, I do not get fouled so easily, but this time it was different. They scared me, telling me I have been involved in tax fraud and miss-payed my taxes. They have had a lot of information about me and called from an official number (central courthouse). They have told I have five charges filled agents me, if I do not pay the outstanding payments, I will be arrested for 3 years or will have to pay 15 thousand pounds. Now it raises questions, but when I was on a call -it didn’t. They have had recorded messages of my call being recorded, kept me on a line for more than 2 hours, while keep transferring me from one person to another, and talked like an official governmental institution.

I panicked, they kept telling me if I do not pay, my bank accounts will get frozen, my passport and all of my information will be moved into the criminal's listings. Now it sounds unreal, and some might say - how were you so stupid, I think that too! But when I was on a call it sounded real.

I had filled in my taxes recently, but the first time I filled it in, I have done a mistake and didn’t get charged for self-employment payments. There are various windows you open and click on, many blanks - it is possible to do a mistake by accident. The second time I did it, everything went right and I have paid my taxes for the last year. Now, let us go back to the story.

When they called me, they have told me I have filled in something wrong and I didn’t pay it fully. They have told me the outstanding amount, which I still have to pay. It was not big and didn’t raise me any additional questions. They have kept threatening me - when I told them that it did not sound right and my friends kept telling me - ‘Gabs it doesn’t sound right, please be careful’ - they have said that I should be lucky, that they have called me first before there are any more troubles. One of my friends sent me an official HRMC site and told me to drop the phone call right now!

I was in a panic, my hands were shaking, I thought I got into a lot of problems. The UK is not the country I am from, I believed I have done a mistake. Now I know it was a scam - these institutions DO NOT CALL YOU ON A PHONE, THEY SEND THE LETTER! Especially during these times when it is a lockdown in the UK, everyone is trying to get the job, struggling in general - it is easier to get into scammers hands.

The next day I have called my banks. Cancelled all the bank transfers I have made into scammers accounts. Bankers have told me these days there are loads of cases where people get into trouble with fraud. Scammers have gotten smart - chose the right time to do it, threatened you into these situations and got into an official number to make the calls.

With this story I wanted to warn all of you - do not get into a panic, text you friends, check if the offices are open during the time of the call - try to gather as much information as possible and if it does not sound right, JUST DROP THE PHONE CALL! And all of you stay safe!