Shrewd scammers steal almost 37,000 euros from Liesbeth (47): “All the children’s savings are gone” (Beveren-Waas)

Cyber ​​criminals made off with all the savings of the children of Liesbeth Van Hoof from Beveren. The 47-year-old mother, who lives on disability benefits, is heartbroken. “More than 36,000 euros is gone,” she says. “It’s terrible that my children have become victims of this.”

Liesbeth recently received a call from her bank. At least, that’s what she thought. In reality, she had cyber criminals posing as bank employees on the phone and thus became a victim of helpdesk fraud. “They had allegedly observed hacking attempts, but they were going to sort everything out. They called me with a Belgian telephone number, so I didn’t smell anything wrong and gave them my email address,” she says.

Making ends meet

According to Liesbeth, that’s all the criminals needed to gain access to her bank account. “I don’t have much money in the account myself. I live on disability benefits and it is difficult every month to make ends meet,” says the mother. “My children’s account contains approximately 36,000 euros, or rather ‘stood’. I opened the account myself in the past and apparently I still had power of attorney on it.”

It was her daughter who raised the alarm. “She called me and asked where all her savings had gone. I fell completely out of the blue,” she says, still shaken. Liesbeth reported the incident to the police, who started an investigation. “I don’t have much hope for a good outcome. We noticed it too late and the money has reportedly been abroad for a long time. I am ashamed that I allowed myself to be caught like this and it is terrible that my children, of all people, are victims of it. They worked hard for that money, but now everything is gone,” she says with a sigh. “And I shouldn’t count on help from the bank. They blame me. I had to ‘be more careful’, was their response.”

Crowdfunding

Liesbeth herself cannot help her children financially, but she did look for a solution and started a crowdfunding campaign. “Let’s all help my children get their money back into their account,” it reads.

Unfortunately, Liesbeth’s file is one of many being investigated by the public prosecutor’s office. The local Waasland-Noord police also notice that cybercrime is on the rise. They found that phishing cases tripled since 2020 and the figure is even 24 times higher than in 2018. In 2023, the figures remained stable compared to 2022. “Unfortunately, there were still 337 cases of hacking, 237 victims of internet scams and 70 of phishing,” says Chief of Police Leo Mares. The police advise you to always report suspicious calls or emails and not to pass on personal information to complete strangers.