Scammers using Rod Stewart's image conned a British man out of his life savings. Photo / Getty Images
Scammers using Rod Stewart's image conned a British man out of his life savings. Photo / Getty Images
When Wayne Westhead, 65, left the British Army eight years ago to care for his wife, who had breast cancer, he had one eye on his family’s finances.
So when he saw an advert purporting to feature Sir Rod Stewart, promising returns for little risk, he thought it could be the answer to his predicament.
“I saw a programme on Facebook and it was telling you that you would make money without too much risk, and it was all about Bitcoin,” Westhead said.
“I thought, ‘I’ll just make a phone call and find out a bit more about it'. I phoned up and I didn’t get through, there was an engaged sound.”
When the fraudsters called him back, they told him he didn’t need to “go in heavy” and should put in only what he could afford. He was convinced and made an initial investment.
After about a month he had made about £600 ($1307), a promising return. So he put in another £500.
Unbeknownst to him, Wayne Westhead’s money was not invested in Bitcoin at all. Image / 123rf
‘I felt out of depth, but the returns looked good’
“Over a period of time, I started investing lots, more than £100,000 ($217,865),“ he said. ”My wife was, to be honest, not getting any better.”
The scammer then pushed Westhead, a soldier for more than 30 years, for more and more investment, introducing elaborate schemes, which he promised would make him even more money.
Buoyed by the previous returns, Westhead agreed – despite feeling out of his depth.
Westhead said: “He went on to introduce me to ‘hedge-funding’, I don’t really understand what that was all about, but he said he would get to a level where I would have 50 Bitcoin and I would be able to draw it out as and when I pleased.”
At the time, the price of Bitcoin was US$8000, so his investment would have been worth US$400,000. But, unbeknownst to him, Westhead’s money was not invested in Bitcoin at all.
In July 2019, Westhead’s wife died. Then, he was diagnosed with two types of cancer.
The fraudsters seized on his vulnerability, assuring him his money was safe and that he should put more of his savings into their scheme. During that period, he made his final investment of £20,000.
But the returns, which Westhead had not realised were fabricated, took a turn for the worse.
He said: “Basically he [the fraudster] invested at such a high level, I’d basically lost what I had. I’d have to invest something like £150,000 to get my money back, to get the deal back, to get my Bitcoin back.”
But Westhead didn’t have the money he had been told he needed to invest to “unlock” his holdings and alarm bells started to ring.
The former soldier started researching the company and came across other victims who had “invested” in the same firm. He finally twigged he had been scammed.
A former British soldier poured his savings into a Bitcoin scheme seemingly endorsed by Rod Stewart. Photo / 123rf
‘I was left with nothing’
“He had me basically where he wanted me, which was helpless. I was left with nothing. I said to him: ‘I know what you’ve done. You’ve done this'. I don’t believe to this day that the Bitcoin made money or that the money I invested went anywhere near Bitcoin.
“As soon as I transferred it, they took it, and they had a ‘ghost account’, which is what I could see,” Westhead said.
“I was so disappointed in myself, for what I’d done, to my kids and everything else. I still had a mortgage on my house which I had to clear.
“This went on for about four years. They did not do this overnight, they took a lot of effort and time.”
Luckily, he still had his Army pension to fund his day-to-day expenses, but Westhead was worried he would have to return to work despite his ill health. He was further concerned his lack of experience outside the military would make finding a job difficult.
Investment scams such as the one Westhead fell victim to are common, with the number of reported cases jumping from 8181 in 2020 to 10,226 last year, according to data from industry body UK Finance.
Of these cases in 2023, nearly 1500 had victims lose more than £10,000 and in total, £107.8 million was lost to these frauds, with £59m returned to victims by their bank.
Lloyd’s Bank found in November of 2023 that crypto scams, often advertised with the wrongful use of famous faces, had risen 23% in a year, with an average loss of £10,741.
Westhead was nervous about contacting new “experts” for help following his experience. But after he contacted a law firm, which operated on a no-win no-fee basis, and it successfully argued his building society, Nationwide, had not adequately protected him, he was refunded.
Westhead said: “I’ve learnt my lesson and it will never happen to me again, that’s for sure. I am a little bit embarrassed.”
But he added: “I am more than happy for people to hear my story and hopefully, it will help them not to get involved.”
Rules introduced in the UK in October require banks and building societies to refund victims of what is known as “Authorised Push Payment” (APP) fraud. This is where victims have authorised the payments themselves, after being pressured by scammers.
But Westhead had sent his money to the fraudsters before the rules were introduced.
Josh Chinn, co-founder of Wealth Recovery Solicitors, the firm that helped Westhead recover his money, said: “Our claim was based on exposing this negligence, but also highlighting Wayne’s difficult personal circumstances at the time.
“It took six weeks to obtain a refund of £152,000 ($330,000) plus £45,000 ($97,976) interest – a sum that Wayne would have accrued if the money had remained in his savings account.”
A Nationwide spokesman said, “Investment scams can be incredibly sophisticated and cause victims lasting worry and stress. Cases like these are never simple and often have many complex factors which need consideration. We review all fraud cases carefully and where there are mitigating circumstances, we review as appropriate.”
