Bank adviser helped stop fraudsters
Birgitte Holm Sprogø reacted quickly when an elderly woman called, expressing her concern that an employee from the bank had taken all her jewellery.
Customer for 22 years
The elderly woman called the bank on a Friday afternoon in May.
When Birgitte Holm Sprogø took the call, the woman told her that she had just received a phone call and a visit by a person called Nygaard from the bank's Aabenraa branch. His reason for coming was to make a scan of her cards, and he took the jewellery given to her by her late husband in order to carry out a valuation of them.
“At the time of her calling, she hadn't quite understood what had happened. She sensed that something was wrong, but didn't really dare to trust that feeling," explains Birgitte Holm Sprogø.
She knows the woman well as she has been her adviser for the 22 years she has been employed at the bank. And she was at no point in doubt at all that the woman had been defrauded.
While talking to the woman on the phone, she saw on her screen that DKK 10,000 had already been withdrawn from the customer's account, and so she immediately froze her card.
Next, she told the woman that she had been scammed.
“She became really upset when I told her she had been exposed to fraud and that he had withdrawn money from her card.”
Birgitte Holm Sprogø could tell that the whole thing was overwhelming for the woman, and she therefore suggested calling a family member who she knew had previously accompanied the woman to the bank.
“I called her family member, who went straight to her house and helped her report it to the police,” she says.
Leads for the police
Birgitte Holm Sprogø was happy that help was now on the way for the elderly woman, but she still couldn't stop thinking about the incident.
"I sat there thinking 'this is not okay'", she explains and decided to see if she could find more leads to help the police track him down.
She had access to the department's video cameras, and she quickly found a clip of a man with his hoodie pulled up around his head and wearing a mask, withdrawing money from the ATM. She called the bank's fraud department, who secured a photo of the man, and immediately sent it to the police.
Birgitte Holm Sprogø knows the city well, and she therefore also knows the most obvious spot for parking if you need to get to the ATM quickly.
“A few minutes before he arrived at the ATM, a grey car drove by. Zooming in, we saw a man inside the car with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up. That was in itself a bit odd because it was a hot day, but it didn't take long from the time the car drove by until he was standing at the ATM," she says, explaining that it matched the time it would take the man to reach the ATM from a nearby parking area.
She therefore called the fraud department again and had them take a still photo of the car, showing part of the number plate. At the same time, she had her colleague, who is good at recognising car models, look at the video, and he immediately identified the brand and model. This information too was passed on to the police.
Trust takes time
In this specific case, the elderly woman got her jewellery back. The DKK 10,000 is still being withheld by the police as it is part of a group of linked cases.
The elderly woman subsequently spoke to Birgitte Holm Sprogø, expressing her gratitude.
“She is incredibly happy that we were able to make a difference and get him locked up. I also praised her for daring to call us. Many people might find it embarrassing to admit they've fallen for the scam, but it's much better to call and minimise the damage," says Birgitte Holm Sprogø.
Nonetheless, the woman still struggles with the fear of being cheated. That's why Birgitte Holm Sprogø has made an agreement with her.
“We have agreed that, for the time being, she'll only talk to me or show up physically at the branch, where she knows us. It makes her feel safer. And if I'm not here, she won't talk to anyone, because that's what she needs right now," says Birgitte Holm Sprogø.
She is aware that such a solution isn't possible everywhere. And that is food for thought.
“In the financial sector, you generally have to handle a lot of customers per adviser, and that means you can't build a relationship of trust which will make customers call if they experience something. If you have 800 of them in your portfolio, it takes a long time to get close to your customers," she says and continues:
“I'm able to do it because I've been in the same place for many years, but it's not the same for everyone.”