Sally says:

I asked Santander to see if there was more that could be done for you. It reported that when you made your first payment on Aug 9, you had acted following a discussion with Long Leaf Management, the firm offering the 2pc bonds that had caught your attention. 

You had checked it out on the Financial Conduct Authority register and saw nothing amiss. You then confirmed with it the relevant bank details for the transfer, which it told you should be sent to BRG Services. When you made the first £250,000 payment, Santander confirmed a match for the payee, so no red flags were raised. 

You made a second payment a few days later for £750,000. But two weeks after you had parted with your £1m – an inheritance from your stepmother who had died in 2020 – the FCA issued a warning that Long Leaf Management Company, a legitimate company based in Ireland that was authorised to do business in the UK, had been cloned by scammers.

A clone is when a fraudster sets up a website with a similar name and details to a genuine company. This warning was too late for you as you had already fallen into the scammer’s trap. You were incredibly lucky that Santander managed to retrieve the majority of your losses from the scammer’s accounts. 

But I can report that you are luckier still, as on reviewing the details of your case, Santander decided to reimburse the balance of your losses. A spokesman said: “We have the utmost sympathy for the customer and all those who fall victim to the criminals who carry out these scams. In light of the checks he carried out prior to making the payments, we have now refunded the outstanding £36,000 taken during the scam.”

Santander added £200 as an apology. You will use this to make a donation to The Fars Chanmugam Trust, a charity that you support, which helps vulnerable children in Sri Lanka.