Lydia Jasmine has shared her story on TikTok to warn others of the dangers of identity theft and fraud, after having nearly £12,000 stolen from her bank account while on holiday in Zante
Lydia Jasmine has shared her story on TikTok to warn others of the dangers of identity theft and fraud (
Image: Getty Images)
A TikTok star has opened up about the nightmare of having a whopping £12,000 swiped from her bank account after a single slip-up while soaking up the sun in Zante.
Lydia Jasmine, who dishes out lifestyle and money tips to her followers, spilled the beans on the costly blunder that happened back in 2022, but reassured fans it’s all sorted now. She warned: “If you’re due to go on a girls’ holiday or a lads’ holiday this summer, do not make the same mistake as me.”
Lydia was living it up on a boat party in the Greek hotspot when she took her eyes off her bag for a quick dip in the sea, trusting her mate to watch over it. She recounted: “My bag was kept on me at all times. The only time I didn’t have my bag on me was when I went in the sea, but my friend was still on the boat, so she had it.”
But when she got back, her phone had vanished into thin air. Lydia recalled the crew’s promise: “They said they would search everyone when we got off the boat to try and find my phone, and they wouldn’t be left off unless they were searched.”
However, she claimed the search wasn’t thorough. The missing phone was bad enough, but Lydia’s real regret was stashing her driving licence in her phone case, reports Birmingham Live.
She reflected: “My biggest mistake that holiday was putting my driving licence in the back of my phone. Now you’re probably thinking, ‘Oh, so what? They’ve only got your driving licence’.
“My birthday, which was on my driving licence in the back of my phone, was the password for my phone. And it was also the password to my online banking.”
She acted quickly and froze her bank cards. However, upon her return home, she discovered that a hefty sum of £12,242 has been whisked away to an unfamiliar account from her ‘Help to Buy’ ISA.
Once the funds were extracted from this ISA, she couldn’t redeposit them. Even though Lydia tried opening a police investigation with her local station, she was instructed to get in touch with the authorities in Zante instead.
Painting a rather disheartening picture, Lydia described the Zante police and the boat tour organisers as “absolutely no help”. She said: “Because this person now has my phone, access to all of my [photo] gallery, all of my photos that were ever on my phone ’cause my iCloud was on there. They have access to my online banking, they have my ID – I’ve had to open an identity fraud protection scheme.
“So now for the rest of my life, I am paying for a protection service against identity fraud ’cause this person could quite easily take out as many loans, mortgages, anything they like with my information.”
Next, Lydia used the Find My iPhone app where she found her phone’s location pinned in Birmingham. In her words: “We gave this to the police. They absolutely did not want to hear about it at all.”
She claimed the police advised against locating the phone themselves, as they would not be protected by the force. Lydia said: “The moral of the story is – do not put your ID in the back of your phone case. One, if you’re going on holiday, two, ever. And number two, don’t set your birthday as your password.”
In a follow-up video, Lydia explained she went through a lengthy process to resolve the matter and get her money back. After a failure to investigate, Lydia met with her bank on several occasions to change her security process, marking her account as ‘fraudulent’ – as well as a ‘fraudulent flag’ – and closing it.
Lydia explained she and her friends couldn’t find the phone, nor could the local police, because the perpetrators could’ve been “on the move” rather than in one location. She said: “For all we knew they could’ve been driving, they could’ve been walking, they could’ve planted the phone anywhere.”
She was advised to set up an identity protection scheme for future protection. Fortunately, she did receive her money back, but it took a while with several phone calls and meetings with her bank, and further investigations by police.
After being left with just 42p, Lydia received a £1,000 grant until the action was confirmed as fraudulent. She said: “If they assume it’s not fraud, you have to pay the money back. But in my situation it was and therefore I was then granted that, and given the rest of the money under the fraud protection.”
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