They’ve been duped out of their dough.
Through sniffles and sobs, a traumatized new mother is warning folks against succumbing to a common con that’s left her penniless and feeling “stupid.”
“Today we were scammed, which meant that we’ve lost our savings,” Amelia Mandeville-Marinaro, 28, from the UK, lamented to over 3.2 million TikTok viewers.
“It’s scary because I’m on maternity leave,” added the married first-time mom. “But I wanted to do this video so that other people learn from our mistakes.”
She and husband Pete are among the growing number of victims who’ve fallen prey to financial fraud.
It’s a global phenomenon that’s plagued thousands, including a staggering 34% of Americans in 2024 alone, per March 2025 data from Bankrate. Researchers from the New York-based personal finance site, too, found that 37% of those scammed lost money.
Shania Baptiste, 25, of NY, and two others were accused of grifting $35,000 out of an 85-year-old Florida woman in February. The “scumbag” swindlers allegedly fooled the senior into believing she’d won $1 million via the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. The trio of tricksters reportedly convinced octogenarian that she had to pay taxes on the loot before collecting it.
Cybercriminals separately targeted Long Island in January, draining over $15.5 million from the account of a Nassau County utility, according to a lawsuit.
“The scale of the financial loss to the District is staggering,” the complaint read, “as is the level of gross malfeasance and conscience-shocking incompetence demonstrated by the Bank in its failure to protect the security and integrity of the District’s bank accounts from the fraud.”
For Mandeville-Marinaro, the draining of her family’s private stash also came as a massive blow.
“I know people are going to be like, ‘Why are you so stupid? It’s obvious it’s a scam,” she cried online. “But sometimes in the moment you don’t realize it.”
The beleaguered Brit went on to explain that Pete received a random call from an unknown number claiming to be a representative of their bank.
“[They] said someone hacked your account and we need to act fast,” said Mandeville-Marinaro.
Upon receiving the harrowing call, Pete issued a text to his wife asking for her debit card details.
“I just sent them over without thinking,” Mandeville-Marinaro admitted, adding, however, that the bank’s demand for the card information struck her as odd.
“Then he calls me and says I need to approve a payment, and I go, ‘Oh, that sounds weird,” continued the brunette. But Pete assuaged those suspicions, telling her that the bank had instructed them to move their funds into another account for safe keeping.
“Alarm bells started ringing I my head,” Mandeville-Marinaro recalled.
Shaken by the weird request for payment, she checked their bank account online and found a notification from the establishment, which read: “We are not trying to call you.”
But her hubby insisted that the call he’d received was legit.
“Stupidly, I approve this payment,” moaned Mandeville-Marinaro. “As soon as I clicked approve I was like, ‘Pete, that doesn’t make sense. This doesn’t sound right.’”
And she was so right.
“We’ve just paid someone all of our savings,” the mom wept. “It was silly, it was stupid of us.”
“They seemed to know a lot about our account and how much was in our savings,” she said of the ne’re-do-wells.
“But just so everyone knows, a bank would never ever call you with No Caller ID,” Mandeville-Marinaro informed, “and a bank would never want you to move your money to make it safe.”
She also noted that most bank’s offer a call log via their apps. The feature indicates all phone communications between the institution and the customer.
“If we would have known that, we would have been able to see that our bank wasn’t calling us,” said Mandeville-Marinaro.
“I know money isn’t everything,” she wailed while cradling her newborn. “Just bad timing.”
“We feel stupid.”
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