No matter how tech-savvy you are, one distracted moment can leave you vulnerable to fraud. Tom, The Tech Chap, recently shared that he was scammed to the tune of £70,000 (approximately $95,000). Most posts by the London-based tech influencer have him reviewing the latest gadgets, so his story about getting caught in a phishing scam while in Tokyo stood out, netting him over 706K views. In a post on TikTok and Instagram, Tom explained that he was on a trip with Sony when he got a call from what he believed was his bank. He says they asked him, “‘Have you added an email to your account?’ I was like, ‘Oh crap, no.’” Tom claimed that he was then asked, “‘Okay. Have you made this payment in Singapore? No? Right?’” Tom was purportedly told, “Okay, you’ve, you’ve been compromised. Um, let’s reset everything.” Tom didn’t talk about any sense of urgency. However, clearly, the person who identified himself as a bank representative was convincing. He claimed, “He’s like, ‘Are you travelling?’ I said, Yes. ‘Okay. Uh, do you need access to one of your cards?’ Yes, please, cause I’m a bit screwed otherwise. He’s like, ‘Okay, well we’ll go through the additional security checks, resets so you can still access your card while you’re there. Cancel the payments, and you’re good to go.” Falling into the trap Tom admitted, “So I was on the phone with him for a couple of hours and we’re going through various resets. I had text messages come through. Then while he was on the phone, I had another call from my bank.” He realized too late that it was all fake. View this post on Instagram Tom said, “It was, as the nice security man who was actually from the bank said, an ‘elaborate phishing scam.’ Which makes me feel a little bit better because it was elaborate. 70,000 in about a dozen payments of like five to 10 grand in the space of a few hours.” Tom admitted that he would have kept going, because the scammer had him believing he had to cancel each charge individually. It was also late. Tom recalled, “It was like 11 o’clock at night, I was jet-lagged, I was tired. There were signs. There’s always signs, but I missed them. And so each code was actually a new recipient that they were adding to make more money.” Interestingly, he had the hacker on hold while he was talking to his bank, and for a minute he couldn’t help but wonder who was real. Now, this is just his version, so it cannot be verified. Tom even said that as a tech creator, he should have known better. Chase Bank notes that scammers are masters of psychological manipulation and use fear and urgency to overwhelm critical thinking. Chase emphasizes that if you ever feel pressured or uncertain during a call, you should hang up and call your bank directly using the number on the back of your card. Never rely on the number provided by the caller or the information in a suspicious text. Tom’s experience highlights how much personal data scammers can gather. He claimed, “They knew my name, address, who I banked with, the type of accounts I had. That I was traveling.” Fortunately, his had a happy ending. He told his viewers that after the bank got the police involved, they were able to escalate things and his money was refunded. Despite the positive outcome, the experience left a mark. Tom shared his frustration in his post caption: “I feel like an idiot… (please be careful).” His followers were mostly supportive. One user reiterated, “The rule to learn here is …..always hang up and call the number on the back of your card !” Another added, “It doesn’t matter how tech savvy you are it can happen to anyone! Literally anyone.” One follower shared, “A while ago a hacker tried to scam a friend of mine in a similar way. Friend got suspicious and did the ‘hang up and call bank’ trick. However, hacker somehow had managed to get into the banks phone system; so when friend called bank, friend still ended up with hacker on the phone.” The best defense, according to Chase, is to remain vigilant and verify. As Tom put it, “Moral of the story, please just be careful. If you’ve got any doubt, any doubt, it will take you 2 minutes to hang up a call or cancel it or just check, you know, call back through official means on the back of your card.”