A court has recently denied bail to 25-year-old Tammy Caruana, who faces charges including fraud, money laundering and forming part of an organised crime group.

In an exclusive interview, one of the alleged victims of Ms Caruana has spoken to WhosWho.mt, detailing how a phone call that appeared to come from her bank allegedly ended with €1,000 gone from her accounts, which was all that she had.

The alleged victim, who asked to remain anonymous, described a call that happened in 2024 which began like any other routine security check. “They called me from what looked the BOV number. She [Tammy Caruana] spoke professionally, the way a real representative would, saying the call was being recorded.”

According to the victim, the caller claimed someone was attempting to access her bank account. She was told she could either follow instructions immediately or wait until Monday to visit the bank, and this increased the pressure to act since only some BOV branches are open on Saturday morning and this happened on a Friday.

“I didn’t know what to do because there are so many scams going on,” she said. “[Ms Caruana] said she wouldn’t ask for any information over the phone, just that she would send an SMS with a link and I have to log in,” and the reassurance worked.

“I told her I was afraid to open it. But she sounded so professional, so I trusted the process.” 

Once she clicked the link, her name and other details appeared on a cloned BOV internet banking website, and she put in some required details that the cloned website had asked her to input. 

After the call ended, the victim said she phoned her bank out of concern: “They told me no one from BOV had called me, and that the money was already gone.”

And after she realised she was scammed, she broke down. “I cried so much. I always said, ‘How do people fall for scams?’ She made me feel stupid.”

According to the victim, around €800 was taken from a joint account and another €200 from a second account. The funds were allegedly consolidated into one account before being transferred abroad.

“They took my €200 and moved it into the joint account so it totalled €1,000,” she said. “They didn’t rob someone rich – they robbed someone poor.”

The alleged victim provided this newsroom with a scanned document of the bank account statement showing the transaction. Information like the reference number of the transaction have been redacted. 

A scan of the bank statement. The first column indicates the withdrawal amount, the second column indicates the deposit amount, and the final column shows the remaining balance in the account. 

The payment records show that the transaction was linked to an individual named Naseem Belghoul. It is not yet clear whether this name represents a real person, a pseudonym, or a digital alias used as part of the alleged scheme.

However, this detail appears to align with indications that the operation may not have been limited to Malta. Reporting by MaltaToday on recent court proceedings stated that, as reports surpassed 100 alleged victims, police requested IP address data from the affected banks. While some IP addresses were traced locally, at least one originated from abroad, suggesting possible international involvement.

The alleged victim also describes another transaction where €15 was later returned to her account as the bank charges that amount in order to complete the transfer.

This deposit was sent with a note that read "Baby momma", slang used to refer to the mother of a man's biological child, frequently used in hip-hop culture. The alleged victim says that this note was probably added to mock her, and while that may be true, it may also be that the alleged scammer added this note to throw off the bank from flagging the transaction as suspicious.  

This payment record shows that 'Naseem Belghoul' had deposited €15 into the victim's account. 

After reporting the incident, she says she was also charged a €20 fee from the bank to process the report. 

“I was abused from every angle,” she added. “I expect that justice will be served.”

According to recent reporting, police also received complaints involving customers from APS Bank, with later reports emerging concerning HSBC and BNF Bank, while the pattern described by victims follows a familiar formula.

Experts have long warned that modern scammers no longer rely on crude tactics. Instead, they use psychology – urgency, authority, and fear, to bypass scepticism.

For the courts the case is in the beginning stages, but the damage to the victims has already been done.