A woman lost 50 thousand euros for answering this phone call

A Portuguese woman, a flight attendant living in the United Arab Emirates, had been saving for over two years to realize her dream of returning home.
But a simple error in judgment saw her lose her life savings – almost €50,000 (Dh200,000) – through a phone scam.
“I was saving because I wanted to resign and return home,” he explained to the Khaleej Times newspaper.
“And instead I lost everything”, as the Portuguese national newspapers also report.
Having lived in Dubai for over four years, the woman was aware of the work of scammers and the existence of telephone scams.
So much so that he doesn't even answer calls from unknown numbers.
However, on that fateful day, the scammers caught her at a time when she had just returned from a long night flight and was so exhausted that she couldn't even think straight.
“I was waiting for a call from a friend who was visiting from my home country,” he explained.
“This is the only reason why I answered the call from an unknown number.
I was sleeping after my red-eye flight and they caught me at my most vulnerable." She answers the phone and loses 50,000 euros The call began with the scammers explaining to the woman that she had won a prize of Dh150,000 (around 38,000 euros) thanks to the collaboration between a bank and a major exchange in the United Arab Emirates.
She had been at the offices of that exchange the day before.
They forced her to update her bank's app to the latest version, saying it was a necessary step to claim her reward.
During the trial, she was tricked into revealing her login details and password for the app.
“Now that I say it out loud, I can't believe I was so stupid,” she revealed.
“But in that moment it was almost like I was hypnotized.
They asked me for my login details to process the reward for them.
They said that since it was a huge sum, they needed my details to deposit it into my account.
Not only was I very tired and my brain wasn't working properly, but the scammers had expert knowledge of the app.
They were also very persuasive and made me keep talking to them.” Once they obtained the login credentials, the scammers kept the woman busy for the next 15 minutes by providing her with reference numbers and asking her to write them down.
“In hindsight, I realize they kept me busy so I didn't check my phone and see notifications from the bank,” she said.
Over the next 24 minutes, his account was drained and his money was sent to three different accounts.
While she was on the phone, she didn't notice money being taken from her account until it was emptied, amounting to around €50,000.