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"I couldn't understand how my bank would allow that," Aussie student reveals how scammer from UK ripped off ALL her money
An Aussie university student was left distraught after a fraudster, allegedly from the UK, stole all of her money by breaking into her bank account. Last month, Sarah Towers discovered that over $3,000 had been illegally taken from her bank account.
She is now trying to scrape together enough money to pay off her credit card in order to avoid incurring late fees on funds owed as a university student earning the minimum wage.
On the video-sharing platform TikTok, Sarah couldn't hold back her tears as she recalled the terrifying experience she had and begged people on social media for advice about what steps to take next.
A scammer took more than $3,000 from Sarah Towers' bank account. Credit: TikTok/@trysarahtops.
"Recently, I was scammed out of all my money in my bank account, which is more than $3,000," said an emotional Sarah in the clip.
"This money that was taken was my bills money, all of my savings, which I was saving for the end of the year and all the money that was on my credit card which was $2,000."
Sarah explained how she believes the criminal gained access to her account, saying that they first gained access to her phone before obtaining her NetBank code.
"Somehow, the person who gained access to my account also had access to my phone and was able to disable my NetBank notifications, allowing them to obtain my NetBank code without my knowledge," she claimed.
"They proceeded to connect their own phone to my bank account so they could make authorised transactions."
Sarah became aware that something was amiss when she began receiving notifications from London regarding transactions that appeared to be suspicious.
"From there, they say call this number if it's an unauthorised transaction, which I did," she recalled. "Then I sat on hold to my bank for an hour and a half waiting for them to answer just so I could close my account."
After some time had passed, she realised that she had called the bank a little bit too late, as by that point, the scammer had already taken all of her money.
"What I couldn't understand was that I'd never travelled outside of the country before, and the man taking my money was from London," she lamented.
"I couldn't understand how my bank would allow that."
Sarah then continued by providing details on some of the unauthorised transactions that had taken place on her account and revealed that they had originated from someone in London.
It wasn't until this point that the bank went ahead and actually closed her account, putting a stop to anything else that could have happened. Sarah's funds, however, had only a remaining balance of $200.
After three weeks of back-and-forth bargaining with the bank, she was told that she couldn't get her money back.
"It's the worst possible outcome for me," she said.
Her TikTok video has received thousands of views and comments from her fellow Australians who are concerned about her financial situation.
"You'll get it back, happened to me a few years ago. I did have to go to the actual bank a few times with appointments," one viewer wrote in the comments section.
Another user said that they also went through the same situation: "This happened to me three times with Commonwealth! Thankfully, they were able to refund all of my money… But when I switched banks, it never happened again!"
A lot of viewers also urged her to keep fighting to get her money back, and some of them even suggested that she should take the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
The Commonwealth Bank has been contacted for comment by Daily Mail Australia; however, the bank has not issued a statement regarding the current situation as of yet.
