EXCLUSIVE One tell-tale sign at a murder scene always has police suspecting the wife... An ex-detective tells JONICA BRAY how Erin Patterson left herself exposed from the day of the fatal lunch
But behind their seemingly ordinary lives, some women harbour dark secrets, deadly resentments and longstanding grudges that can have unimaginable consequences.
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Times
27 minutes ago
- Times
‘I stole £1.2m in a 40-minute call — then blew it all in Harrods'
Fraud accounts for 41 per cent of all reported crime in the UK and as much as £1.17 billion was stolen by scammers last year, according to the trade body UK Finance. This makes it the most common type of crime — and I am one of the world's leading experts on it. Why? Because I used to be a prolific fraudster and spent more than 25 years stealing money and services worth many millions of pounds. Some of my frauds were theatrically audacious. I once spent seven months living free of charge in five-star hotels in central London, posing as the 13th Duke of Marlborough and demanding that invoices were sent to Blenheim Palace. Other frauds were immensely cruel and damaging, fleecing some of my victims of their life savings and causing them to become seriously unwell. The harm I caused still haunts me. • Fake duke jailed for fooling five star hotels with Fawlty Towers con trick I was in prison three times over 17 years — for a total of eight years, each spell longer than the last. When I was finally released in January 2022, I knew I had to change. I started sharing my insights with law enforcement, banks, the government and, perhaps most importantly, with members of the public. I have just started working with BBC Radio 4 on a podcast called Scam Secrets. One of the most highly damaging types of fraud is an authorised push payment (APP) scam. This involves a fraudster contacting a victim, usually by telephone, pretending to be a bank employee or a police officer, convincing the victim that their money is at risk and instructing them to transfer it out of their account into a 'safe' account. This method can net a vast amount of money very quickly and doesn't leave much evidence. Between 2017 and 2018 the police estimate that I stole as much as £50 million by committing APP fraud. I didn't know or care at the time, but I was leaving a trail of absolute chaos in my wake. Once, during the course of a 40-minute phone call, I stole £1.2 million from a family-run construction company. It caused utter devastation. I took all the money they had, leading to scores of redundancies. My gang targeted small-to-medium-sized family-run construction companies because we figured that they could have several million pounds in the bank but wouldn't have sophisticated accounting procedures. And, unlike a law firm, for example, they would not require multiple signatories to authorise online bank transfers. I would be able to focus all my energy on one person and not have to worry that somebody else might smell a rat. The isolation of a victim is key to a successful fraud. I called the company's switchboard and asked the receptionist to put me through to the accounts manager. The number that the receptionist saw on her phone was the correct number for their bank's fraud department — I had 'spoofed' the phone number using a free app which, unbelievably, is still available to download, despite it having no legitimate use. When the accounts manager (let's call her Sally) answered her extension, I explained that I was calling from the bank's fraud team and that we had noticed an unusual transaction which we needed to verify. I gave my name as somebody who genuinely worked for the bank (I had found his name and job title on LinkedIn) and invited Sally to Google the number she could see on her phone display to satisfy herself that I was genuine. Sally tapped away on her computer and, after a few seconds, sounded reassured. 'Phew, you're genuine,' she said, 'you can never be too sure these days'. I asked Sally whether she had attempted to transfer £45,000 to a Mercedes garage in Dundee (several hundred miles away from their office). Naturally, she replied that such a payment was unauthorised so I reassured her I would block the transaction. Her nervousness gave way to relief as I was able to help her. She thanked me over and over again. • Read more money advice and tips on investing from our experts 'Sally,' I said, 'we need to understand why this suspicious transaction has appeared out of the blue. It is possible you have a virus on your system which is causing this to happen. Have you had any suspicious emails recently, or have you noticed your system running slow or buffering from time to time?' This is an example of the Barnum-Forer effect, a psychological phenomenon whereby people are given scenarios that are supposedly tailored to them, but could equally apply to many other people. We all get junk mail in our inboxes, and whose computer doesn't run slow or buffer? I knew that Sally would say yes and panic that there could indeed be dangerous malware on her system. I then told her that we would need to make some test payments to check whether a virus was interfering with the transactions. If we found a virus we would be able to create a patch to keep the company safe. Sally, by now baffled with technical jargon, asked me how long all of this would take because she needed to pick her children up from school. I reassured her that I would be as quick as possible but the priority had to be keeping our valuable customers safe from fraudsters. • The rise of fraud in the UK What I said next is an example of the cruel and sophisticated social engineering that fraudsters use. 'Sally, I am shortly going to ask you to log into your online banking platform and make a series of test payments. Your account will be in a test environment while we make these dummy transactions, but they will look just like genuine payments. This requires you to trust me. So, if you are in any way worried that I might not genuinely be calling from the bank, we can end this call now and I can arrange an appointment for you to visit the branch with your usual desktop computer so we can carry out the tests in person.' Sally paused. 'OK I'm happy to continue with this and I trust you. I've verified the number you're calling from, I've checked your name online … and you can't possibly be a fraudster because what scammer in his right mind would give me the opportunity to end the call. We're always told that fraudsters will rush us and you haven't done that either. So yeah, let's get these tests done but please hurry up as otherwise I'll have to put the kids in after-school club and that's so bloody expensive.' Over the next 20 minutes I instructed Sally to make transfers to what I told her were 'randomly generated test accounts'. Over and over again, until every single penny had left the company bank account. At the end of the call, I told her we had identified and successfully patched the virus. Everything was back under control and she could go and collect the kids while I restored the balances to their pre-test values. Sally thanked me profusely and we ended the call. When I telephoned Sally that day, she did not stand a chance. She was hopelessly duped by an expert career fraudster, despite carrying out reasonable checks as to my identity. My co-conspirator, an expert money launderer, went to work withdrawing the cash from the accounts that Sally had inadvertently funded and we drove to Harrods and blew the lot. I remember the spree with a deep sense of disgust. In court, Sally said that during those 40 minutes she had transferred more from the company account than she was likely to earn through her entire working life. She told the court that every time her phone rings she panics and feels sick to the pit of her stomach. She finds it hard to trust anybody and has lost all her confidence. I have never forgotten her words. I am ashamed, more than words can possibly express, of the man I used to be and I now use all of my energy to help stop people like that man, running fraud awareness courses and advising banks and governments on how to prevent scams. • Fraudsters stole £260k from Colin before he died. We called them up Given the sophistication and ruthlessness of such gangs, it is entirely right that the banks are now obliged to refund customers under the APP reimbursement scheme, up to a limit of £85,000. The scheme is mandatory for all banks and financial institutions in the UK. They must pay back victims, with the liability shared equally with the sending and receiving banks of fraudulent payments. The scheme has incentivised banks to develop far better transaction monitoring technology — for example, banks can tell how we are holding our phones when we are making payments in case it is at a different angle to usual. They can tell if a transaction is taking longer than normal, or if a phone call is taking place at the same time, which would indicate that the customer was being instructed by a third party to make the payment. But despite this, fraudulent payments continue to be made, and victims continue to report staggering losses. Fraudsters won't give up, they will keep coming up with new ways to get their hands on your money. Perhaps it is time to abandon the faster payment systems altogether and revert to a four-day clearance cycle — banks are at a serious time disadvantage when payments clear within seconds.
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
South Yorkshire Police must improve investigation results
South Yorkshire Police has been rated as good at preventing crimes but told it needs to improve its investigation outcomes, according to a new force was reviewed across nine areas following a recent visit by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary Michelle Skeer said she while was "pleased with some aspects" the force was "not bringing about a good service" in to the report Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Poolman said work was already under way "to develop an action plan to improve the service". HMICFRS graded the force across eight areas, rating it "good" in one, "adequate" in five and "requires improvement" in two others.A previous report published in February 2023 rated the force adequate, good or outstanding in all to the latest inspection, the force requires improvement at investigating said that in the year to 30 September 2024 a total of 125,472 victim-based crimes were recorded, but just 10.9% were assigned an "offences brought to justice" outcome - though said that figure fell within the normal range compared to other forces in England and WalesIt found that in almost half of cases (46.1%) no suspect was force was also rated as requires improvement at building, supporting and protecting the report said a number of officers and staff said they felt unable to cope with their "high workloads", with sergeants in particular saying they often had to take work home to also said the force needed to improve its understanding of why officers were choosing to leave, adding that in the 12 months to 10 February 2025, 45 student officers had left. Ms Skeer said: "We found the force particularly good at preventing and deterring crime, with a clear commitment to neighbourhood policing. "The force also answers 999 calls more quickly but doesn't always respond to calls for service as quickly as it should. "While the force has tried to address this issue, it needs to do more to meet the public's needs."She added the force had faced "significant challenges", including policing the violent disorder at the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers in August and the discovery of a £65m said: "I will be monitoring the force's progress closely and I hope that changes made will result in improvements that help it better meet the public's needs."Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Poolman said: "Some gradings have lowered. This is not a sign that we are holding ourselves to lower standards than before but rather that a new higher bar has been set by HMICFRS prior to this round of inspections."She said the force faced challenges with its financial deficit and shortage of detectives but was committed to being an "ambitious force" in preventing crime and disorder and responding to the needs of victims and communities. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Police documents released after Bryan Kohberger's sentencing detail strange happenings weeks before
In the weeks before Bryan Kohberger killed four University of Idaho students, there were strange happenings at their rental home near campus. One of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, told her roommates she saw a man she didn't recognize staring at her when she took her dog outside. Another time, the residents came home to find the door open, loose on its hinges. They grabbed golf clubs to arm themselves against a possible intruder. Those details were included in hundreds of documents released by police within hours of Kohberger being sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the brutal stabbing murders of Gonclaves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin early Nov. 13, 2022. It remains unclear whether the strange happenings had anything to do with the killings. But the documents but do illustrate the frenzied efforts by law enforcement to follow every possible lead to find and convict Kohberger. Here's a look at some information from the documents: Curious happenings at 1122 King Rd. Bethany Funke was one of two roommates to survive the night of the stabbings. In interviews after the murders, she told police that about a month earlier, Goncalves had taken her dog, Murphy, outside when she saw an unknown man 'up above their house to the south,' staring at her. It was concerning enough that Goncalves 'told everyone' about it and called her roommates to ask if they'd be home soon, Funke said. Then, on Nov. 4, nine days before the attack, the roommates came home at 11 a.m. to find the door open, loose on its hinges, as the wind blew. Goncalves was away at the time. Kernodle's father fixed the door, Funke reported. On Nov. 13, police found a gruesome scene. Blood pooled on bed comforters, covered floors and was splattered on walls. One the victims, Kernodle, had extensive defensive wounds; in her room 'it was obvious an intense struggle had occurred,' one office wrote. Detailing the investigation's steps Tips poured in. A staff member at Walmart told police that two to three weeks earlier, a white, college-age male had come in looking for a black ski mask that would cover his face. People who saw online feeds of some of the victims at a food truck offered their thoughts about a possible perpetrator, and investigators also looked into leads about bar-goers they had seen earlier in the night or an Uber driver they frequently used, the documents show. A woman who lived nearby told police that in either August or September 2022, she and her daughter saw a man in their yard who 'looked nervous.' She said she was almost certain it was Kohberger. Officers eventually identified Kohberger — a doctoral student in criminology at nearby Washington State University — using a DNA sample found on a knife sheath at the crime scene. They tracked his movements that night with cellphone data, obtained online shopping records showing he had purchased a military-style knife, and linked him to a car that repeatedly drove by the students' house. The documents include memos memorializing the subpoenas or warrants they served seeking records and the responses to those requests. Investigators served a warrant on the dating app Tinder, looking for accounts Kohberger might have created with certain emails and which might link him to his victims. No such evidence emerged, and the motive for the killings remains a mystery. Kohberger spoke with police — briefly Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, about six weeks after the killings. He was taken to a state police barracks to be interviewed by officers from the Moscow police department, Idaho State Police and the FBI. They chatted about the Washington State football team, Kohberger's doctorate studies in criminal justice, his required duties to be a teaching assistant while in college, and why he wanted to become a professor. Kohberger eventually said he understood they were engaging in small talk, but he would appreciate if the officers explained what they wanted. One detective told him it was because of what had happened in Moscow. Asked if he knew what had transpired, he replied, 'Of course.' Did he want to talk about it? 'Well, I think I would need a lawyer,' Kohberger replied. He continued speaking, though — asking what specific questions they had and asking if his parents and dog were OK following his arrest. Kohberger finally said he would like to speak to an attorney, and police ended the interview because he had invoked his Fifth Amendment right. Behind bars with Kohberger A man incarcerated at the Latah County Jail who was once housed next to Kohberger's cell told a detective Sept. 16, 2024, that Kohberger would often question him about his past criminal offenses and why he was in the maximum security wing of the facility. The man said Kohberger's habits annoyed him, including how he washed his hands dozens of times each day and spent 45 minutes to an hour in the shower. He said Kohberger stayed awake almost all night and would only take a nap during the day. ___ Johnson reported from Seattle. Hallie Golden, Audrey McAvoy, Martha Bellisle, Mark Thiessen and Jesse Bedayn contributed.
