Clever man outwits a bank scammer: 'He had an excuse for everything!'
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In an era where technology has made our lives easier, new avenues for fraudsters to exploit unsuspecting victims have also opened up.
One such incident recently occurred in New South Wales, where a quick-thinking man managed to outwit a scammer attempting to gain access to his bank details.
Ray, a resident of NSW, found himself on the receiving end of a sophisticated phishing scam.
The scammer, who posed as a National Australia Bank (NAB) bank employee, attempted to trick Ray into revealing his bank details.
However, Ray's sharp instincts and knowledge of banking procedures helped him identify the red flags.
The scammer initiated contact with Ray via a text message containing a suspicious link.
'He sent me a text message with a link, and he wanted me to open the text,' Ray explained.
'I said to him, “No, I'm not going to open this text until I get confirmation from NAB,” because I wasn't just going to open a random text from someone calling off a private number.'
'It was a man with a British accent. He said everything you expect NAB would say, but he called me off a private number. He had an excuse for that. He had an excuse for everything.'
However, Ray remained sceptical and refused to open the text message.
'When he started getting irritated, I knew this guy was a scammer.'
In a surprising turn of events, the scammer ended the call with an explicit goodbye message, 'OK, f*** yourself, love you, bye bye,' before abruptly hanging up.
Chris Sheehan, NAB Executive for Group Investigations and National Fraud, praised Ray's actions and used the incident to highlight the warning signs Australians should be aware of.
'Ray did the right thing. NAB will never call you and ask you to share your one-time PIN, transfer money to another account to keep it safe, give us remote access to your devices or provide personal information like your driver’s licence details,' Mr Sheehan said.
'Criminals are masters at being insistent and pushy to create a sense of fear or urgency.'
'Their goal is to pressure the person to make the payment themselves or share personal details, such as log-in details or one-time passcodes.'
'If you aren’t sure if it is NAB calling you, hang up and call the bank yourself using the number on the back of your card or via searching it on our public website.'
Despite efforts by banks to reduce the number of Australians falling victim to scams, Mr Sheehan revealed that the global epidemic cost Australians more than $3 billion in 2022.
'While phone phishing remains an issue, we have seen a 77 per cent reduction in cases when comparing October to December 2023 to October to December 2022,' he said.
'We worked with telecommunications providers to put protections in place to make it harder for criminals to impersonate bank phone numbers and infiltrate legitimate text message threads.'
'This means that scam calls may appear as an unknown number or no caller ID, like in Ray’s case, whereas previously they might have appeared to come from a legitimate bank number.'
'NAB has also removed links from text messages we send customers to make it easier to identify when a message is legitimate. Text messages are the biggest front door to phishing scams.'
Have you ever encountered a similar situation? Share your experiences and tips in the comments below to help others stay safe.
One such incident recently occurred in New South Wales, where a quick-thinking man managed to outwit a scammer attempting to gain access to his bank details.
Ray, a resident of NSW, found himself on the receiving end of a sophisticated phishing scam.
The scammer, who posed as a National Australia Bank (NAB) bank employee, attempted to trick Ray into revealing his bank details.
A man successfully stopped a scammer from obtaining his bank details. Image source: Shutterstock.
However, Ray's sharp instincts and knowledge of banking procedures helped him identify the red flags.
The scammer initiated contact with Ray via a text message containing a suspicious link.
'He sent me a text message with a link, and he wanted me to open the text,' Ray explained.
'I said to him, “No, I'm not going to open this text until I get confirmation from NAB,” because I wasn't just going to open a random text from someone calling off a private number.'
'It was a man with a British accent. He said everything you expect NAB would say, but he called me off a private number. He had an excuse for that. He had an excuse for everything.'
However, Ray remained sceptical and refused to open the text message.
'When he started getting irritated, I knew this guy was a scammer.'
In a surprising turn of events, the scammer ended the call with an explicit goodbye message, 'OK, f*** yourself, love you, bye bye,' before abruptly hanging up.
Chris Sheehan, NAB Executive for Group Investigations and National Fraud, praised Ray's actions and used the incident to highlight the warning signs Australians should be aware of.
'Ray did the right thing. NAB will never call you and ask you to share your one-time PIN, transfer money to another account to keep it safe, give us remote access to your devices or provide personal information like your driver’s licence details,' Mr Sheehan said.
'Criminals are masters at being insistent and pushy to create a sense of fear or urgency.'
'Their goal is to pressure the person to make the payment themselves or share personal details, such as log-in details or one-time passcodes.'
'If you aren’t sure if it is NAB calling you, hang up and call the bank yourself using the number on the back of your card or via searching it on our public website.'
Despite efforts by banks to reduce the number of Australians falling victim to scams, Mr Sheehan revealed that the global epidemic cost Australians more than $3 billion in 2022.
'While phone phishing remains an issue, we have seen a 77 per cent reduction in cases when comparing October to December 2023 to October to December 2022,' he said.
'We worked with telecommunications providers to put protections in place to make it harder for criminals to impersonate bank phone numbers and infiltrate legitimate text message threads.'
'This means that scam calls may appear as an unknown number or no caller ID, like in Ray’s case, whereas previously they might have appeared to come from a legitimate bank number.'
'NAB has also removed links from text messages we send customers to make it easier to identify when a message is legitimate. Text messages are the biggest front door to phishing scams.'
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