[James Gutierrez]

Man loses $20,000 in new email scam - don't let this happen to you!​

As we get older, we like to think that we become more savvy and streetwise. We've been around the block a few times, after all – we know what to look out for and what red flags to beware of.

So it's pretty disheartening when something like this happens...

Anthony Palmer from Perth was recently scammed out of a whopping $20,000 after falling prey to an email scam. And unfortunately for him, it seems as if there's not much anyone can do about it.

Mr Palmer finally got his dream car, but it ended up costing him a lot more than he expected. Credit: Land Rover.

The whole incident started back in October 2021 when Mr Palmer ordered his dream car – a Land Rover Defender – from Barbagallo Motors in Osborne Park, Perth; a dealership he had purchased several vehicles from previously without issue.

He had only $20,000 left to pay for the car at the time of purchase.

He was then contacted by someone pretending to be a business manager from Barbagallo, and it was included in their email the banking details for the final transfer of funds remaining on the car purchase.

The email looked completely legitimate; Mr Palmer didn't hesitate to transfer the money over within seconds via bank transfer (as he had been told by staff at Barbagallo that this would be best instead of sending a physical cheque).

Someone claimed to be from Barbagallo and sent Mr Palmer a fraudulent request for payment. Credit: Pexels/Mikhail Nilov.

Everything seemed fine… until two weeks later when Mr Palmer received a voicemail from Barbagallo's actual business manager urging him repeatedly to call 'ASAP' and informing him not to 'transfer any money'.

Panicking, Mr Palmer immediately got in touch with both the dealership and his own bank (Westpac) to try and get some answers and hopefully recover his lost funds somehow - but that only made things worse...

Barbagallo Motors told Mr Palmer they would not release his car to him until he had paid the $20,000 which had been sent to the scammers.

Mr Palmer was understandably frantic; he had already paid a significant amount of money for the car and was now being asked to pay more for something he never expected to happen.

Mr Palmer already paid $20,000, and Barbagallo wanted him to pay again. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio.

'Their email had been compromised,' Mr Palmer told news reporters. 'They said they had been hacked and it was not their fault. You can imagine how stressful it is, especially when you can't do anything about it.'

After some negotiation, he and the dealership finally reached a compromise: he would pay an extra $10,000 on top of what he had already paid, with the understanding that it would be returned to him in full once the situation had been investigated and resolved.

More than a year has passed since the incident, and Mr Palmer still hasn't gotten his money back, even though he has filed formal complaints with the police, Westpac, and several other organisations, such as WA's Consumer Affairs.

And now he's upset because Australian consumers don't seem to have any legal recourse to defend themselves from these types of scams and shortcomings from large companies.

Mr Palmer is demanding that businesses and banks in Australia take stronger measures to safeguard their customers against phishing and other online scams. Credit: Pexels/Mikhail Nilov.

'It doesn't feel like Barbagallo has done any investigating - they were the ones who were hacked, but I've got no apology and we haven't found out where the money has gone - it feels like they washed their hands of it,' Mr Palmer recalled, describing the ongoing ordeal as 'distressing'.

'Westpac has also taken no accountability,' he continued.

'I received an email (purportedly) from a respected garage and transferred money through the same banking institution I belong to, which gave the whole thing credibility - the last thing I would think would be that it was a scam.'

'Australia is probably one of the easiest places for cybercrime because our institutions just don't take any accountability. The responsibility to protect customers should lie with the banks,' he went on to say.

In a statement, Barbagallo Motor Group insisted that the company had been targeted by a 'man-in-the-middle' attack rather than admitting that its email system had been compromised.

'A thorough and external investigation at the time showed that there was no breach of our servers. What occurred was a "man-in-the-middle" attack where email interactions with this customer were intercepted,' said a representative for the company.

'Barbagallo's servers have never been hacked. No customer information has ever been compromised. We are renowned for how we do business, the focus of which is our relationship with our customers. This matter was amicably settled 10 months ago with the client's close involvement, and we see no reason why this matter is being raised now.'

'This incident serves as an important reminder that scammers and hackers are an ever-present threat and an unfortunate reality of doing business.'

Key Takeaways

• Anthony Palmer from Perth only had $20,000 left to pay for his dream car, but things took a turn for the worse when he received an email from a 'representative' from Barbagallo Motors.
• Mr Palmer sent the payment to someone claiming to be from the company, and it was only after two weeks that he was informed that he had to pay again.
• Mr Palmer felt frustrated that Barbagallo never offered an apology and that the entire responsibility for the company being hacked fell on him, the client.
• Now, he's urging Australian businesses and financial institutions to take action and do more to safeguard their clients from these kinds of fraud and phishing schemes.

Des O'Driscoll, the counsellor who helped and supported Mr Palmer through the hellish experience, has called for further measures to be taken to safeguard Australian consumers.

Without saying anything about the case, in particular, Mr O'Driscoll said that businesses should go way above and beyond to protect their clients. For him, being open and transparent was the best thing a company could do to reassure people that their systems had not been compromised.

He argued: 'Rarely do we see a business who has been compromised acknowledge the issue and then commit to ensuring their affected customers are their priority until the matter is resolved.'

So there you have it, folks. Be extra careful when transferring money online, even when dealing with businesses you're familiar with.

What do you think of this story? Let us know in the comments below!

 

[Nikitta]

I Would be taking the car dealership to court, they claim a man in the middle that’s Bu****** someone has an extra bonus. As a show of good faith they should have wavered the balance. And the bank are so eager to take your money in fees and might I add they do have insurance for this kind of thing. No you should start legal process and get them both to pay up.

 

[The CAJAN]

Man loses $20,000 in new email scam - don't let this happen to you!​

As we get older, we like to think that we become more savvy and streetwise. We've been around the block a few times, after all – we know what to look out for and what red flags to beware of.

So it's pretty disheartening when something like this happens...

Anthony Palmer from Perth was recently scammed out of a whopping $20,000 after falling prey to an email scam. And unfortunately for him, it seems as if there's not much anyone can do about it.

View attachment 9139

Mr Palmer finally got his dream car, but it ended up costing him a lot more than he expected. Credit: Land Rover.

The whole incident started back in October 2021 when Mr Palmer ordered his dream car – a Land Rover Defender – from Barbagallo Motors in Osborne Park, Perth; a dealership he had purchased several vehicles from previously without issue.

He had only $20,000 left to pay for the car at the time of purchase.

He was then contacted by someone pretending to be a business manager from Barbagallo, and it was included in their email the banking details for the final transfer of funds remaining on the car purchase.

The email looked completely legitimate; Mr Palmer didn't hesitate to transfer the money over within seconds via bank transfer (as he had been told by staff at Barbagallo that this would be best instead of sending a physical cheque).

View attachment 9140

Someone claimed to be from Barbagallo and sent Mr Palmer a fraudulent request for payment. Credit: Pexels/Mikhail Nilov.

Everything seemed fine… until two weeks later when Mr Palmer received a voicemail from Barbagallo's actual business manager urging him repeatedly to call 'ASAP' and informing him not to 'transfer any money'.

Panicking, Mr Palmer immediately got in touch with both the dealership and his own bank (Westpac) to try and get some answers and hopefully recover his lost funds somehow - but that only made things worse...

Barbagallo Motors told Mr Palmer they would not release his car to him until he had paid the $20,000 which had been sent to the scammers.

Mr Palmer was understandably frantic; he had already paid a significant amount of money for the car and was now being asked to pay more for something he never expected to happen.

View attachment 9141

Mr Palmer already paid $20,000, and Barbagallo wanted him to pay again. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio.

'Their email had been compromised,' Mr Palmer told news reporters. 'They said they had been hacked and it was not their fault. You can imagine how stressful it is, especially when you can't do anything about it.'

After some negotiation, he and the dealership finally reached a compromise: he would pay an extra $10,000 on top of what he had already paid, with the understanding that it would be returned to him in full once the situation had been investigated and resolved.

More than a year has passed since the incident, and Mr Palmer still hasn't gotten his money back, even though he has filed formal complaints with the police, Westpac, and several other organisations, such as WA's Consumer Affairs.

And now he's upset because Australian consumers don't seem to have any legal recourse to defend themselves from these types of scams and shortcomings from large companies.

View attachment 9142

Mr Palmer is demanding that businesses and banks in Australia take stronger measures to safeguard their customers against phishing and other online scams. Credit: Pexels/Mikhail Nilov.

'It doesn't feel like Barbagallo has done any investigating - they were the ones who were hacked, but I've got no apology and we haven't found out where the money has gone - it feels like they washed their hands of it,' Mr Palmer recalled, describing the ongoing ordeal as 'distressing'.

'Westpac has also taken no accountability,' he continued.

'I received an email (purportedly) from a respected garage and transferred money through the same banking institution I belong to, which gave the whole thing credibility - the last thing I would think would be that it was a scam.'

'Australia is probably one of the easiest places for cybercrime because our institutions just don't take any accountability. The responsibility to protect customers should lie with the banks,' he went on to say.

In a statement, Barbagallo Motor Group insisted that the company had been targeted by a 'man-in-the-middle' attack rather than admitting that its email system had been compromised.

'A thorough and external investigation at the time showed that there was no breach of our servers. What occurred was a "man-in-the-middle" attack where email interactions with this customer were intercepted,' said a representative for the company.

'Barbagallo's servers have never been hacked. No customer information has ever been compromised. We are renowned for how we do business, the focus of which is our relationship with our customers. This matter was amicably settled 10 months ago with the client's close involvement, and we see no reason why this matter is being raised now.'

'This incident serves as an important reminder that scammers and hackers are an ever-present threat and an unfortunate reality of doing business.'

Key Takeaways

• Anthony Palmer from Perth only had $20,000 left to pay for his dream car, but things took a turn for the worse when he received an email from a 'representative' from Barbagallo Motors.
• Mr Palmer sent the payment to someone claiming to be from the company, and it was only after two weeks that he was informed that he had to pay again.
• Mr Palmer felt frustrated that Barbagallo never offered an apology and that the entire responsibility for the company being hacked fell on him, the client.
• Now, he's urging Australian businesses and financial institutions to take action and do more to safeguard their clients from these kinds of fraud and phishing schemes.

Des O'Driscoll, the counsellor who helped and supported Mr Palmer through the hellish experience, has called for further measures to be taken to safeguard Australian consumers.

Without saying anything about the case, in particular, Mr O'Driscoll said that businesses should go way above and beyond to protect their clients. For him, being open and transparent was the best thing a company could do to reassure people that their systems had not been compromised.

He argued: 'Rarely do we see a business who has been compromised acknowledge the issue and then commit to ensuring their affected customers are their priority until the matter is resolved.'

So there you have it, folks. Be extra careful when transferring money online, even when dealing with businesses you're familiar with.

What do you think of this story? Let us know in the comments below!

NEVER pay by bank transfer. I have had my credit card (Wespac) scammed three times, though not online. Once by a purchase over the phone from a store in Perth (I live in Toowoomba) and within 3 days more than $1000.00 had been charged to my credit card at a zoo in Stockholm, Sweden (Xbox things). Westpac paid my money back to me. I got scammed by an Australian ISP (now gone broke) and Westpac got my money back -- the actual scamming was done by a "reputable" firm of accountants. I was scammed a third time and got my money back from Westpac. Wespac guarantees their credit cards against theft other than for stupidity like writing your pin number on the back of the card. Good way to remember your pin number is to include it in a phone number like Mabyl Clarke, 07 4651 2249 where your pin number is, say, 5122, or 2215 or any scheme. Write it on a business card or similar.I have been twice scammed on eBay and have got my money back from PayPal who cover for losses incurred when paying by PayPal. Now I am waiting to get my money back from Google. You won't have nearly enough money for legal fees to take these guys who engage in "FUD" in a war of attrition but you can give them maximum media exposure ("Senior on tiny pension scammed by Google"). Hope this is of significant help. Also, for items under $1000, an Australia Post prepaid Mastercard is not linked to any of your bank accounts, so you cannot lose more than you have put on the card -- I usually put $100 - $200 on it.

 

[Door Knob]

My brother got scammed by somebody that hacked his roofers email account. He got a email from the roofing company on their letterhead with their logo etc saying before they started the job a deposit had to be paid, which is fair enough so my brother transferred the $17,000 on line to the bank account stated on the email.
A week went by and there was no start on the job, so my brother rang the roofer and he said he was waiting for a deposit to be made. My brother said he paid it. Apparently the email was intercepted by someone that put their bank account details in the email, so the money went to a scammers bank. My brother rang the bank to stop the transfer but the money was already cleared . He rang the police who were not interested, spoke to the bank & the bank ombudsmen and Telstra over the hacked email address but his efforts were in vain, he lost the $17,000
So stay on your guard, if you have to pay for something and you get an email with the company’s bank details on it, don’t trust it, ring the company direct and get their bank details from them. Scammers try everything.

 

[Ricci]

If I have a bill to pay such as the gentleman mentioned I phone the company and ask to speak to their accounts department. Then while I have them on the phone I do the transfer with them telling me the BSB and account number, I also ask for a reference number to include with my payment. Even if I have an email, text or whatever giving me those details I still phone, that way I know I'm sending it to the right place and they know I'm paying it and to look out for it arriving into their account. If they haven't received it after a couple of days we can start a search with the bank.

 

[DDDavis]

When I arrived home after shopping, expecting a large number of people from Sydney for our daughter's Wedding, I found my husband on the phone and proceeded to unpack the groceries. It was an hour later when my husband informed me, he had been on the phone for hours with Microsoft, explaining the dilemma with his computer. He thought we had been scammed from a notice on the computer "Your computer has been compromised" Do Not Turn your computer off instead ring Microsoft on the number on the screen. Unfortunately, my husband who is not as sharp as he used to be, panicked at the thought of losing his information and so the scam started. We had just been paid our pension into our joint account of which was the first account to be wiped clean, then our redraw facility on our mortgage was emptied. (We had just saved enough for our rates). Our payment for the month had just been transferred, they got that too. Next were the credit cards, all credit withdrawn. Banks don't automatically refund you now, you have to report to the Federal Police. If there is any chance they can recover the money, we may get some back. This can take up to at least 6 months. In the meantime, Centrelink won't help. Our bank accounts have been frozen, and we have no accessible funds. New cards will take a fortnight to get here. A wedding on the weekend. Thankfully I have enough groceries for the many guests on our doorstep. Although I am disabled, I desperately need to find employment to get us out of this mess. My husband is in his mid 70's and also unable to work. I guess life goes on somehow. I wonder if scammers ever think about the lives they are destroying?

 

[Hrynpa]

Man loses $20,000 in new email scam - don't let this happen to you!​

As we get older, we like to think that we become more savvy and streetwise. We've been around the block a few times, after all – we know what to look out for and what red flags to beware of.

So it's pretty disheartening when something like this happens...

Anthony Palmer from Perth was recently scammed out of a whopping $20,000 after falling prey to an email scam. And unfortunately for him, it seems as if there's not much anyone can do about it.

View attachment 9139

Mr Palmer finally got his dream car, but it ended up costing him a lot more than he expected. Credit: Land Rover.

The whole incident started back in October 2021 when Mr Palmer ordered his dream car – a Land Rover Defender – from Barbagallo Motors in Osborne Park, Perth; a dealership he had purchased several vehicles from previously without issue.

He had only $20,000 left to pay for the car at the time of purchase.

He was then contacted by someone pretending to be a business manager from Barbagallo, and it was included in their email the banking details for the final transfer of funds remaining on the car purchase.

The email looked completely legitimate; Mr Palmer didn't hesitate to transfer the money over within seconds via bank transfer (as he had been told by staff at Barbagallo that this would be best instead of sending a physical cheque).

View attachment 9140

Someone claimed to be from Barbagallo and sent Mr Palmer a fraudulent request for payment. Credit: Pexels/Mikhail Nilov.

Everything seemed fine… until two weeks later when Mr Palmer received a voicemail from Barbagallo's actual business manager urging him repeatedly to call 'ASAP' and informing him not to 'transfer any money'.

Panicking, Mr Palmer immediately got in touch with both the dealership and his own bank (Westpac) to try and get some answers and hopefully recover his lost funds somehow - but that only made things worse...

Barbagallo Motors told Mr Palmer they would not release his car to him until he had paid the $20,000 which had been sent to the scammers.

Mr Palmer was understandably frantic; he had already paid a significant amount of money for the car and was now being asked to pay more for something he never expected to happen.

View attachment 9141

Mr Palmer already paid $20,000, and Barbagallo wanted him to pay again. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio.

'Their email had been compromised,' Mr Palmer told news reporters. 'They said they had been hacked and it was not their fault. You can imagine how stressful it is, especially when you can't do anything about it.'

After some negotiation, he and the dealership finally reached a compromise: he would pay an extra $10,000 on top of what he had already paid, with the understanding that it would be returned to him in full once the situation had been investigated and resolved.

More than a year has passed since the incident, and Mr Palmer still hasn't gotten his money back, even though he has filed formal complaints with the police, Westpac, and several other organisations, such as WA's Consumer Affairs.

And now he's upset because Australian consumers don't seem to have any legal recourse to defend themselves from these types of scams and shortcomings from large companies.

View attachment 9142

Mr Palmer is demanding that businesses and banks in Australia take stronger measures to safeguard their customers against phishing and other online scams. Credit: Pexels/Mikhail Nilov.

'It doesn't feel like Barbagallo has done any investigating - they were the ones who were hacked, but I've got no apology and we haven't found out where the money has gone - it feels like they washed their hands of it,' Mr Palmer recalled, describing the ongoing ordeal as 'distressing'.

'Westpac has also taken no accountability,' he continued.

'I received an email (purportedly) from a respected garage and transferred money through the same banking institution I belong to, which gave the whole thing credibility - the last thing I would think would be that it was a scam.'

'Australia is probably one of the easiest places for cybercrime because our institutions just don't take any accountability. The responsibility to protect customers should lie with the banks,' he went on to say.

In a statement, Barbagallo Motor Group insisted that the company had been targeted by a 'man-in-the-middle' attack rather than admitting that its email system had been compromised.

'A thorough and external investigation at the time showed that there was no breach of our servers. What occurred was a "man-in-the-middle" attack where email interactions with this customer were intercepted,' said a representative for the company.

'Barbagallo's servers have never been hacked. No customer information has ever been compromised. We are renowned for how we do business, the focus of which is our relationship with our customers. This matter was amicably settled 10 months ago with the client's close involvement, and we see no reason why this matter is being raised now.'

'This incident serves as an important reminder that scammers and hackers are an ever-present threat and an unfortunate reality of doing business.'

Key Takeaways

• Anthony Palmer from Perth only had $20,000 left to pay for his dream car, but things took a turn for the worse when he received an email from a 'representative' from Barbagallo Motors.
• Mr Palmer sent the payment to someone claiming to be from the company, and it was only after two weeks that he was informed that he had to pay again.
• Mr Palmer felt frustrated that Barbagallo never offered an apology and that the entire responsibility for the company being hacked fell on him, the client.
• Now, he's urging Australian businesses and financial institutions to take action and do more to safeguard their clients from these kinds of fraud and phishing schemes.

Des O'Driscoll, the counsellor who helped and supported Mr Palmer through the hellish experience, has called for further measures to be taken to safeguard Australian consumers.

Without saying anything about the case, in particular, Mr O'Driscoll said that businesses should go way above and beyond to protect their clients. For him, being open and transparent was the best thing a company could do to reassure people that their systems had not been compromised.

He argued: 'Rarely do we see a business who has been compromised acknowledge the issue and then commit to ensuring their affected customers are their priority until the matter is resolved.'

So there you have it, folks. Be extra careful when transferring money online, even when dealing with businesses you're familiar with.

What do you think of this story? Let us know in the comments below!

This happens quite regularly I have had money taken out of my account due to the Optus And Medibank hacks.
I have called the bank and canceled my card at least twice now as I think they are still hacking Optus as it seems to come after I pay my bill each month.

I have also submitted my details to the class action on Medibank As I do not like my details on the Dark Web and no one has been taken to task over this issue.


Key take aways from this are:

Check your accounts regularly,

Change your bank cards if required to stop people accessing your account

Get your bank to request refunds if possible, and

Join any class actions if available

 

[Bilby]

Before transferring a large amount of money to an account, transfer a small odd amount
eg $13.49 then ring up the recipient and ask if the payment has come through.

 

[ozgreat]

NEVER pay by bank transfer. I have had my credit card (Wespac) scammed three times, though not online. Once by a purchase over the phone from a store in Perth (I live in Toowoomba) and within 3 days more than $1000.00 had been charged to my credit card at a zoo in Stockholm, Sweden (Xbox things). Westpac paid my money back to me. I got scammed by an Australian ISP (now gone broke) and Westpac got my money back -- the actual scamming was done by a "reputable" firm of accountants. I was scammed a third time and got my money back from Westpac. Wespac guarantees their credit cards against theft other than for stupidity like writing your pin number on the back of the card. Good way to remember your pin number is to include it in a phone number like Mabyl Clarke, 07 4651 2249 where your pin number is, say, 5122, or 2215 or any scheme. Write it on a business card or similar.I have been twice scammed on eBay and have got my money back from PayPal who cover for losses incurred when paying by PayPal. Now I am waiting to get my money back from Google. You won't have nearly enough money for legal fees to take these guys who engage in "FUD" in a war of attrition but you can give them maximum media exposure ("Senior on tiny pension scammed by Google"). Hope this is of significant help. Also, for items under $1000, an Australia Post prepaid Mastercard is not linked to any of your bank accounts, so you cannot lose more than you have put on the card -- I usually put $100 - $200 on it.

Is that 5 times you have said you have been scammed?....I don't need advice from you, nor would I take it from a 5 time + scammed person....btw....just keep telling scammers where you hide your PIN.....

 

[ozgreat]

When I arrived home after shopping, expecting a large number of people from Sydney for our daughter's Wedding, I found my husband on the phone and proceeded to unpack the groceries. It was an hour later when my husband informed me, he had been on the phone for hours with Microsoft, explaining the dilemma with his computer. He thought we had been scammed from a notice on the computer "Your computer has been compromised" Do Not Turn your computer off instead ring Microsoft on the number on the screen. Unfortunately, my husband who is not as sharp as he used to be, panicked at the thought of losing his information and so the scam started. We had just been paid our pension into our joint account of which was the first account to be wiped clean, then our redraw facility on our mortgage was emptied. (We had just saved enough for our rates). Our payment for the month had just been transferred, they got that too. Next were the credit cards, all credit withdrawn. Banks don't automatically refund you now, you have to report to the Federal Police. If there is any chance they can recover the money, we may get some back. This can take up to at least 6 months. In the meantime, Centrelink won't help. Our bank accounts have been frozen, and we have no accessible funds. New cards will take a fortnight to get here. A wedding on the weekend. Thankfully I have enough groceries for the many guests on our doorstep. Although I am disabled, I desperately need to find employment to get us out of this mess. My husband is in his mid 70's and also unable to work. I guess life goes on somehow. I wonder if scammers ever think about the lives they are destroying?

Really?.....