Our story about a grandfather who lost £100,000 in a sophisticated investment scam appeared on the front of the Belfast Telegraph newspaper.
The story revealed how we are helping the fraud victim in his scam claim against Allied Irish Bank (AIB).
The 70-year-old described the “massive shock” of being conned out of the money by scammers posing as M&S Bank.
Eric Gallagher* (not his real name), from County Antrim, thought he was investing in a three-year bond in May, last year, which he was using to save money for his children and eight grandchildren.
But when the first annual interest payment of £7,500 failed to arrive a year later, and the phone numbers he had been using stopped working, he realised he had been the victim of a sophisticated scam.
National Fraud Helpline solicitors, who are acting for Mr Gallagher, have described the scam as, ‘one of the most convincing we have ever seen.’
Mr Gallagher wants Allied Irish Bank (AIB) to reimburse the lost funds as he says they failed to carry out sufficient checks on his transfer to the criminals, even though he went into his local branch in person.
“It was such a large amount, I feel the bank could have taken a bit more care in transferring one of their customers’ money,” said Mr Gallagher. “They could have done more checking, because they’re more au fait and more used to those sort of dealings than I am.
“There weren’t any questions asked about where the money was going, who the recipients were, I just filled out the forms, they did the transfer and that was it.”
When he uncovered the fraud, he said he felt “so foolish” and couldn’t bring himself to tell anyone about it.
Mr Gallagher’s nightmare began last May when he was looking for a safe haven for his money, and found details online about an M&S bond paying an annual return of 7.5 per cent over three years.
He spoke to someone with an English accent calling themselves Jonathan, who talked him through the options.
The fraudsters convinced him to transfer the money from his Santander account to his AIB account before making the investment, because they said it would be easier to make the transfer from AIB.
He was sent a convincing M&S Bank application form, along with other M&S Bank literature that made him believe the investment was legitimate.
To make the scam seem real the fraudsters even insisted that Mr Gallagher should send them proof of identity and a utility bill.
The documents stated that the investment would be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000, which in Mr Gallagher’s eyes minimising his risk if the scheme went “belly up”.
After passing identity and money laundering checks, he went into his local branch of AIB to transfer the money to the account he had been given, which was to an HSBC account.
Staff at the bank completed the £100,000 transfer, no questions asked.
He later received an official-looking M&S Bank receipt, together with ‘proof’ that his money had been placed in a bond.
A few months later, Mr Gallagher spoke to Jonathan on the phone and asked for the interest to be added quarterly, as opposed to annually.
“He said ‘no, but you’ll get your £7,500 in May as promised’,” he said.
But when May 2025 came around and nothing happened, he tried to get back in touch with Woods on the same London landline number.
Mr Gallagher said: “All of a sudden, none of the telephone numbers I had were recognised, and I knew I’d been scammed.
“You read about scams all the time, but I’m amazed at how easily it all materialised. It all seemed totally real.”
Leo McGowen, a lawyer at National Fraud Helpline solicitors, said: “We suspect more people will have fallen for this scam. It was an incredibly sophisticated fraud.
“It’s one of the most convincing scams we’ve ever seen.
“When scams are this convincing, it’s even more important that banks act as the first line of defence and do proper and thorough checks to help prevent these types of fraud.
“We have written to AIB asking the bank to refund our client in full.”
Read the story in full: NI grandad lost £100k in ‘incredibly convincing’ bond scam | BelfastTelegraph.co.uk
Have you lost money to an investment scam? Do you need a scam refund from AIB? Whatever the scam, contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.