{"id":43812,"date":"2023-10-23T09:59:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T09:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lethal-industry.com\/?p=43812"},"modified":"2023-10-23T09:59:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T09:59:18","slug":"royal-family-approved-kent-brushes-boss-loses-1-6million-in-barclays-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lethal-industry.com\/world-news\/royal-family-approved-kent-brushes-boss-loses-1-6million-in-barclays-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Family approved Kent Brushes boss loses \u00a31.6million in Barclays scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Steve Wright, CEO of Kent Brushes is “appalled” at the service from their bank and the police after they had \u00a31.6million stolen by thieves.<\/p>\n

He spoke to host Paul Lewis on the BBC podcast Money Box about the scam and how it unfolded.<\/p>\n

The hairbrush company, which supplies brushes to the Royal Family, had millions stolen from their account in just 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

After three months, the founders have not been able to claim any of their money back.<\/p>\n

Criminals called up the company’s financial controller (FC) and convinced him the company’s money was at risk and that it needed to be transferred.<\/p>\n

There were no “alarm bells” as the criminals had copied the company’s official website and number so everything looked as if it was legitimate.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The FC was prompted to log into his account to move the funds somewhere else. Once he went onto the website and logged into what he thought was his account, the screen went blank. He thought his computer was completing updates, however, this is how scammers were able to gain access to the Kenr Brushes financial account.<\/p>\n

The thieves managed to steal \u00a31.6million through nearly 40 separate transactions, all to new payees in less than 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Authorised push payment fraud is a form of fraud in which victims are manipulated into making real-time payments to fraudsters. Britons are tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee.<\/p>\n

Mr Wright said: “The moment I was informed that we had fallen victim to the APP scam I don\u2019t think I can put into words how I felt.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“My stomach dropped. My initial thought was ‘this is a mistake’ and surely the bank would be on hand to help us recover the money as it happened literally moments ago.<\/p>\n

“I felt for my financial controller who had fallen victim because you have to realise it\u2019s not just a business that has fallen victim, people are involved here as well.<\/p>\n

“Then I went into that ‘okay well now we have to try and get an actual recovery? What do we do and what plan do we need to put in place. How we go about recovering these funds?'”<\/p>\n

He immediately contacted his bank, Barclays, for support on the issue. Mr Wright was shocked the bank’s systems didn’t flag the magnitude of transfers in such a short space of time and block them.<\/p>\n

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