'I've lost all faith in banks' Gloria Hunniford speaks out after fraudsters stole £120,000
TELEVISION presenter Gloria Hunniford has hit out at banks after she had £120,000 stolen from her account by fraudsters.
'Too easy for fraudsters these days' - Gloria Hunniford
The 76-year-old host of Rip Off Britain became the victim of identity fraud when a woman pretended to be her by using a fake driving licence in January.
Gloria's story was featured on a live episode of a new series of the consumer show, which aired this morning.
She told viewers: "It turned out complete strangers could get their hands on my money easier than I can.
"I have to admit that since this whole thing happened, personally I have lost all faith in banks, and my big question is, are they really doing enough to keep every customer's money safe?
Gloria Hunniford had her savings account emptied by fraudsters
Gloria shared her story on an episode of Rip Off Britain
Personally I have lost all faith in banks
"Now, not in a million years would I expect everybody to know who I am or what I look like, and I totally get it that you don't have to dress up to look like somebody in order to impersonate them.
"But I would expect that the banks would carry out stringent security checks before they literally handed over tens of thousands of pounds to a stranger."
Gloria's bank, Santander, said it was working to make improvements to stop this sort of thing from happening again.
A fraudster claiming to be Gloria arrived at a Croydon North End branch of the bank and spoke to an employee.
Police are appealing for information on the whereabouts of this woman
The Loose Women panellist said she had lost all faith in banks
She said she had "a few bob in the bank" but she'd been ill and wanted her grandson to be a co-signatory so that he could withdraw money from the account.
She presented a fake driving licence, a bank card and after signing a few forms had "almost instant access" to the broadcaster's savings.
Fortunately Gloria was able to get her money back because it was so obviously a scam.
Police are still appealing for information to find the woman identified by Gloria as the fraudster in CCTV footage from the bank.
Rip Off Britain airs weekdays at 9.15 on BBC One.