'I warned my relatives, but fell for it myself': €1m scam victims tell of regret

Victims of an elaborate €1 million bank scam continued to testify in court on Wednesday, with many telling of their panic and regret at being robbed of savings running into thousands of euros. 

The victims, who came from all walks of life, were testifying in the case against suspect fraudster Tammy Caruana, a 25-year-old woman from St Paul’s Bay who is accused of scamming around 200 people and defrauding them of €1 million.

She is pleading not guilty. 

The testimonies followed a similar pattern to those from previous sittings: the victims received an SMS or a phone call from a number they thought was their bank, telling them something was wrong, before being instructed to click on a link, call a number, or receive a phone call.

“I received a message saying someone had tried to log in to my internet banking account, and that if it was not me, I should call a specific number or click on the link.

"I was at work, so I clicked on the link. A web page opened saying that a bank representative would call me, and a call promptly came in from what appeared to be the bank’s number,” she said, adding that the message appeared in the same SMS thread in which she normally received legitimate messages from her bank.  

The victim said the Maltese woman on the other end of the line asked all the questions typical of a bank employee and told her that someone had tried to make four transfers totalling €14,950. 

“She explained that the process would take between 45 minutes and one hour, with each transaction taking that amount of time to be cancelled. I was to receive a message for every transaction that was cancelled.” 

By the time she realised it was a scam, it was too late. She has still not received the money back. 

Another victim, who was defrauded of €15,000, said he received an SMS stating that someone was trying to take money from his account. It instructed him to click on a link to log into his banking app.  

“I used to tell my wife to watch out for these kinds of things, since due to the nature of her job, she receives many such messages. Then I fell for one myself. On the one hand, I felt stupid, but on the other hand it was cleverly written and persuaded you that if you didn’t act, you would lose money,” said the victim, who has also not been recompensed. 

While he did not speak to anyone over the phone, those who did described a convincing act – a professional-sounding woman with a “sweet” voice who asked all the right questions. 

“She called me by my name, told me the call was being recorded, and told me not to say any numbers over the phone for security reasons,” said one victim who ended up having €470 taken from his account, with the transaction appearing to show a payment to an AirBnB property.  

“I realised I was one of those victims of fraud you often hear about,” he said. 

Others managed to avoid being scammed by acting quickly after suspecting something was wrong. 

“She told me my phone number was not in the system, but I thought that was strange because I receive messages from the bank all the time,” said one woman who was robbed of around €6,000, of which €2,425 has been refunded to date. 

“I tell my kids to be careful, and then I trusted this person because she sounded legitimate.” 

Another woman, who received a similar SMS and phone call, was told someone had tried to withdraw €5,000 from a savings account, for which she did not even have a bank card. 

“She told me she was working to reverse the transaction. It felt legitimate. She told me the bank would hold onto the money until the following morning, which raised my suspicions, but I put it down to bank processes. She told me she would phone me again to make sure everything was OK.” 

The victim said that despite the woman’s reassurances, she kept dwelling on it, and when she tried to access the link again later that day, it did not work, at which point she filed a police report and contacted her bank, which stopped the money from being withdrawn. 

“I panicked. I’ve been through a lot in my life, and saving that amount of money has been a miracle. If they had managed to take €5,000, I would have been devastated. And even so, it’s still been a hassle,” she said.  

The case, presided over by Magistrate Laura Lanfranco, continues.  

The prosecution is being led by AG lawyers Mauro Abela and Marica Ciantar, assisted by Police Inspector Claire Vella Borg. 

Lawyers Roberto Spiteri and Franco Galea are appearing for the accused. Stefano Filletti and Maria Lisa Buttigieg are representing BOV and BNF, respectively.