There have been plenty of reports about the rise of scams, and while many have been done to try and combat them, sadly, there are still those who fall victim to these schemes.

Unfortunately, one grandmother named Jane was the latest victim who lost a whopping $750,000 to a scam.

Jane, an ANZ customer of nearly 50 years, had recently sold her family home and was ready to invest the money in some long-term savings when disaster struck.

The grandmother fell for an elaborate hoax as she believed she was sending the money into an ING account that would offer an attractive interest rate—but instead, the money ended up in a bogus NAB account created by scammers.

A grandmother fell victim to a scam and lost a total amount of $750,000. Image source: shurkin_son on Freepik.

Jane lost her money in the blink of an eye and said she had contacted both ANZ and NAB about the mistake but was told her money was gone for good. She was then warned that it was unlikely that she would receive much of the money back.

It is understood that Australians are encouraged to reach out to their banks if they have been victimised by a scam.

In comparison the UK, where new laws yet to be implemented in the coming year, will require banks to refund victims of scams within days unless proven to have acted negligently or fraudulently.

Australians are not necessarily entitled to the same compensation.

ANZ eventually agreed to return $1000 to Jane but said it couldn’t do much else. Understandably, Jane was absolutely devastated and expected much more support from her bank.

'I used to have ultimate faith in the banking system,' she said.

'But my money would have been safer under my mattress.'

Jane’s daughter, Sarah, who shared her mum’s pain, said: 'You feel that lump in your throat...to realise that my mum had been a victim of such a massive crime.'

Stephanie Tonkin from the Consumer Law Action Centre also added that bank impersonation scams are becoming far more common and difficult to recognise for average people.

'We’ve dropped the ball because we don’t have any form of strict regulation that says who is responsible,' she said.

In similar news, Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice cloning scams have become more sophisticated.

This scam involves cybercriminals stealing a victim’s voice from social media and using it to fool unsuspecting family members with a fearmongering phone call. This is done in the hopes of receiving money or access to private information.

You can find out more about this story and how to stay safe from such scams here.

This story comes after reports of another senior was targetted by scammers shortly before being diagnosed with dementia at age 78.

Victor, Alex's son, said he found out about the missing money when he and his father had recently visited their local ANZ branch—apparently, almost half a million dollars had been stolen from Alex's account.

Alex, however, had meticulously noted down names and details of conversations with the strangers who had contacted him.

To Victor’s surprise, the bank sent them a letter three months later letting him know they would reimburse the scam transactions on his father’s bank account.

You can read more about this here.

Members, it’s important that we keep ourselves educated and vigilant when it comes to scammers and their sneaky tactics, to ensure we as well as our loved ones don’t fall into the same traps.

You can find out about the latest news on scams on our Scam Watch forum here.

Make sure your family and friends remain aware of the most common scams out there, and if you happen to be a victim of fraud, it’s essential to call your bank as soon as possible and report the incident to Scamwatch to help protect others.

Key Takeaways

• An Australian grandmother named Jane was scammed out of $750,000 after falling for a hoax involving a fake NAB account.
  
• Jane contacted both ANZ and NAB after realising the scam, but was told her money was lost and she would likely not receive much of it back.
  
• Unlike in the UK, where new laws will force banks to refund victims of scams within days, Australians are not necessarily entitled to compensation for funds lost to scammers.
  
• Stephanie Tonkin from the Consumer Law Action Centre noted the increase in bank impersonation scams and stated that Australia lacks strict regulation concerning responsibility in these situations.
  

Members, how do you stay safe from the different types of scams nowadays? Share your tips with us below!

 

[BruceC]

I agree with BruceC. It's time people learned to take responsibility for their own stupidity and greed.
Not enough information is provided in this article. I have to assume the money came from the sale of the house and was deposited into her ANZ account. Did she then go online to search for a better investment and believe by transferring the money to NAB the interest would be much larger? Why should either bank be held responsible for something someone picks up from the Internet through unsafe searching. She chose to transfer from ANZ. The scammers are sitting there waiting for people searching for better ways to invest. They use NAB name. That's not NAB responsibility.
If banks are to be held responsible for every bit of fraudulent activity for money leaving or reportedly coming to them, what will be the flow-on effect on investment opportunities for customers of those banks? I certainly don't want my interest reduced by my bank who is forced to pay back money to stupid greedy clients who fail to safely research their investments.
Let's move on from these ridiculous stories that try to make the banks the bad guys.

Could not agree more!
Well said!

 

[mylittletibbies]

When I do online banking, there is always a pause to check if the details I entered are correct/checked. Often my bank will send a text in order for me to enter a pin number before the bank transfers the money.
If people think it's fraud, the police handles that. But it's likely they can't do anything, if people voluntarily transfer their money to somebody.

My bank does the same, no way would I deal with The Big 4, they just don't care
Have been with Beyond Bank for 8years, no complaints.

 

[Macarj]

I don't know why she expects the bank to repay when she did the transfer

 

[Macarj]

As a retired banker in the UK and Australia, my understanding has always been (for 60 years) that the banks in both countries are obliged to reimburse victims of banking fraud.

This wasn't a fraud she transferred the money

 

[JKD]

If it sounds too good to be true it normally is. How can people be so stupid then expect the bank to make good their stupidity. Yes, I feel sorry for the lady in question but people have to take responsibility for their actions. There has been plenty of information on the media about banking frauds so no excuse.

 

[Skeeta22]

There have been plenty of reports about the rise of scams, and while many have been done to try and combat them, sadly, there are still those who fall victim to these schemes.

Unfortunately, one grandmother named Jane was the latest victim who lost a whopping $750,000 to a scam.

Jane, an ANZ customer of nearly 50 years, had recently sold her family home and was ready to invest the money in some long-term savings when disaster struck.

The grandmother fell for an elaborate hoax as she believed she was sending the money into an ING account that would offer an attractive interest rate—but instead, the money ended up in a bogus NAB account created by scammers.

View attachment 31271

A grandmother fell victim to a scam and lost a total amount of $750,000. Image source: shurkin_son on Freepik.

Jane lost her money in the blink of an eye and said she had contacted both ANZ and NAB about the mistake but was told her money was gone for good. She was then warned that it was unlikely that she would receive much of the money back.

It is understood that Australians are encouraged to reach out to their banks if they have been victimised by a scam.

In comparison the UK, where new laws yet to be implemented in the coming year, will require banks to refund victims of scams within days unless proven to have acted negligently or fraudulently.

Australians are not necessarily entitled to the same compensation.

ANZ eventually agreed to return $1000 to Jane but said it couldn’t do much else. Understandably, Jane was absolutely devastated and expected much more support from her bank.

'I used to have ultimate faith in the banking system,' she said.

'But my money would have been safer under my mattress.'

Jane’s daughter, Sarah, who shared her mum’s pain, said: 'You feel that lump in your throat...to realise that my mum had been a victim of such a massive crime.'

Stephanie Tonkin from the Consumer Law Action Centre also added that bank impersonation scams are becoming far more common and difficult to recognise for average people.

'We’ve dropped the ball because we don’t have any form of strict regulation that says who is responsible,' she said.

In similar news, Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice cloning scams have become more sophisticated.

This scam involves cybercriminals stealing a victim’s voice from social media and using it to fool unsuspecting family members with a fearmongering phone call. This is done in the hopes of receiving money or access to private information.

You can find out more about this story and how to stay safe from such scams here.

This story comes after reports of another senior was targetted by scammers shortly before being diagnosed with dementia at age 78.

Victor, Alex's son, said he found out about the missing money when he and his father had recently visited their local ANZ branch—apparently, almost half a million dollars had been stolen from Alex's account.

Alex, however, had meticulously noted down names and details of conversations with the strangers who had contacted him.

To Victor’s surprise, the bank sent them a letter three months later letting him know they would reimburse the scam transactions on his father’s bank account.

You can read more about this here.

Members, it’s important that we keep ourselves educated and vigilant when it comes to scammers and their sneaky tactics, to ensure we as well as our loved ones don’t fall into the same traps.

You can find out about the latest news on scams on our Scam Watch forum here.

Make sure your family and friends remain aware of the most common scams out there, and if you happen to be a victim of fraud, it’s essential to call your bank as soon as possible and report the incident to Scamwatch to help protect others.

Key Takeaways

• An Australian grandmother named Jane was scammed out of $750,000 after falling for a hoax involving a fake NAB account.
• Jane contacted both ANZ and NAB after realising the scam, but was told her money was lost and she would likely not receive much of it back.
• Unlike in the UK, where new laws will force banks to refund victims of scams within days, Australians are not necessarily entitled to compensation for funds lost to scammers.
• Stephanie Tonkin from the Consumer Law Action Centre noted the increase in bank impersonation scams and stated that Australia lacks strict regulation concerning responsibility in these situations.

Members, how do you stay safe from the different types of scams nowadays? Share your tips with us below!

I have recently been receiving daily telephone calls from people claiming to be Amazon, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Bank and the ATO claiming I owe money, the latest is from ANZ wanting me to confirm I have authorised a massive payment to someone & need to press a certain button on my phone to be transferred to somewhere I can confirm my transaction or pay the outstanding amount. These are ALL computerised calls. I simply hang up on them. I figure if I owed money they would send me a letter!

 

[mylittletibbies]

If I had $750000 I hope I would have the sense not to have it all in the same bank. When it’s such a large sum why can’t banks check with you before just transferring it ? Especially to ordinary people, businesses maybe different.

What I don't understand is how she was able to transfer such large sums of money on three different occasions
I bank with Beyond Bank and there is a daily limit you can transfer, unless you ring them and get an extension on that amount.
Even if I want to transfer funds between my own accounts I can not exceed this limit. I think the amount is $5,000.
People whinge all the time because the banks query if you want to take larger than normal amounts out of their account. You can't have it both ways, you either want the banks to be careful with your money or not.
Personally I don't care if they query me, I'd rather they be careful with my money
I am Power of Attorney for my daughter and my bank even rang me recently to advise me that, as now my daughters account had reached a certain amount, there was actually a better account she could transfer it to to get higher interest.
She then told me to ring them back myself, AFTER I LOOKED UP THEIR NUMBER, to ensure it wasn't a scam.
Even when purchasing a joint property there were many hoops I had to jump through before they would realise my daughters fund.
They asked to see the copy of the purchase agreement to ensure my daughters name was on it, they also
wanted the name of the settlement agent .
I didn't get upset about their questions, I was happy they were doing due diligence on my daughter's behalf.

 

[Keswickian]

As a retired banker in the UK and Australia, my understanding has always been (for 60 years) that the banks in both countries are obliged to reimburse victims of banking fraud.

Surely this is not banking fraud? The bank did nothing wrong and should not be obliged to use other people's money to reimburse somebody who did something very foolish.

 

[Gsr]

I wonder why these people are losing so much money to scammers, there are daily warnings on several forms of media about scams. Presumably if these people are tech savvy enough to be doing online banking, then they should be tech savvy enough to know about these scams and to avoid them. I don’t think the banks should have to refund them the money they lost when it was their doing.

 

[MaggieMay1948]

There have been plenty of reports about the rise of scams, and while many have been done to try and combat them, sadly, there are still those who fall victim to these schemes.

Unfortunately, one grandmother named Jane was the latest victim who lost a whopping $750,000 to a scam.

Jane, an ANZ customer of nearly 50 years, had recently sold her family home and was ready to invest the money in some long-term savings when disaster struck.

The grandmother fell for an elaborate hoax as she believed she was sending the money into an ING account that would offer an attractive interest rate—but instead, the money ended up in a bogus NAB account created by scammers.

View attachment 31271

A grandmother fell victim to a scam and lost a total amount of $750,000. Image source: shurkin_son on Freepik.

Jane lost her money in the blink of an eye and said she had contacted both ANZ and NAB about the mistake but was told her money was gone for good. She was then warned that it was unlikely that she would receive much of the money back.

It is understood that Australians are encouraged to reach out to their banks if they have been victimised by a scam.

In comparison the UK, where new laws yet to be implemented in the coming year, will require banks to refund victims of scams within days unless proven to have acted negligently or fraudulently.

Australians are not necessarily entitled to the same compensation.

ANZ eventually agreed to return $1000 to Jane but said it couldn’t do much else. Understandably, Jane was absolutely devastated and expected much more support from her bank.

'I used to have ultimate faith in the banking system,' she said.

'But my money would have been safer under my mattress.'

Jane’s daughter, Sarah, who shared her mum’s pain, said: 'You feel that lump in your throat...to realise that my mum had been a victim of such a massive crime.'

Stephanie Tonkin from the Consumer Law Action Centre also added that bank impersonation scams are becoming far more common and difficult to recognise for average people.

'We’ve dropped the ball because we don’t have any form of strict regulation that says who is responsible,' she said.

In similar news, Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice cloning scams have become more sophisticated.

This scam involves cybercriminals stealing a victim’s voice from social media and using it to fool unsuspecting family members with a fearmongering phone call. This is done in the hopes of receiving money or access to private information.

You can find out more about this story and how to stay safe from such scams here.

This story comes after reports of another senior was targetted by scammers shortly before being diagnosed with dementia at age 78.

Victor, Alex's son, said he found out about the missing money when he and his father had recently visited their local ANZ branch—apparently, almost half a million dollars had been stolen from Alex's account.

Alex, however, had meticulously noted down names and details of conversations with the strangers who had contacted him.

To Victor’s surprise, the bank sent them a letter three months later letting him know they would reimburse the scam transactions on his father’s bank account.

You can read more about this here.

Members, it’s important that we keep ourselves educated and vigilant when it comes to scammers and their sneaky tactics, to ensure we as well as our loved ones don’t fall into the same traps.

You can find out about the latest news on scams on our Scam Watch forum here.

Make sure your family and friends remain aware of the most common scams out there, and if you happen to be a victim of fraud, it’s essential to call your bank as soon as possible and report the incident to Scamwatch to help protect others.

Key Takeaways

• An Australian grandmother named Jane was scammed out of $750,000 after falling for a hoax involving a fake NAB account.
• Jane contacted both ANZ and NAB after realising the scam, but was told her money was lost and she would likely not receive much of it back.
• Unlike in the UK, where new laws will force banks to refund victims of scams within days, Australians are not necessarily entitled to compensation for funds lost to scammers.
• Stephanie Tonkin from the Consumer Law Action Centre noted the increase in bank impersonation scams and stated that Australia lacks strict regulation concerning responsibility in these situations.

Members, how do you stay safe from the different types of scams nowadays? Share your tips with us below!

All Australian banks should be held liable for scams none of them have invested in the systems, checks and balances to ensure validity of bank transfers.

They don't even ensure names match account numbers like in other countries. That's why the Romanians are niw targeting Australia. They know our systems are weak. They are prolific at computer scams and peopke smuggling and sex trafficking. And yet our government happily opens Australia's doors yo them.

Personally, I would find a brilliant financial lawyer and take the banks to court.

 

[Whitey Wiskas]

I want to warn ALL MEMBERS ! Be very, very wary of ANY DESK. My recommendation is to refuse to install it on your computer, no matter what the argument is given from these, so called "Investment Managers" located in London or Lebanon or Cyprus and yes, even in Australia. If they have a different accent, WATCH THEM!
I did, some years ago and have regretted it ever since. I confess, I originally "Invested" smaller amounts, say $10,000 and $20,000. These performed quite well for a short time, until my manager suggested, no, Demanded that I sink more money into these schemes.
When I refused to and tried to withdraw my profits, the whole connection suddenly became unstuck and I lost touch with my funds.
Then I started to get calls from "Recovery Companies" offering to retrieve the money I lost. To do this, they needed to install Any Desk on my computer to search my accounts to ascertain if any could be used to receive my recovered funds. All they were doing was to get access to my Bank Accounts, for information and later, as I recently found out, to STEAL my money. I had to put a lock on my phone for after 8pm, as I was getting phone calls from these ,supposed, companies at any time during the night or after midnight.
I shifted $20,000 from my current bank and a couple of other smaller sums to another bank, because I was having issues (over these scams) with my normal bank. I then transferred a further $25,000 for the same reason. I thought everything was safe.
I answered and add on the internet, for a recovery company who seemed legitimist. Things were starting to look good, when I was informed that they needed a Bank Account they could deposit money in to.
Like a trusting baby, I allowed, with a lot of protest I can assure you, to check my accounts , as well as my new ones with Any Desk. That was on 1st August this year. On the 3rd August I happened to check my new bank accounts and found that they had STOLEN $14,670 on the 1st, $24,679 on 2nd and another $20,000 on the 3rd August. Goodness only knows how much more they intended to steal. ( I am not disclosing the name of the bank(s) as I received a note yesterday, setting out the same as they told Jan, that they can't recover the money because she authorised it. I strongly pointed out to them that I did not authorise anything, it was stolen. I don't want to jeopardise any actions they might take to recover my funds.)
The frustrating fact is that I have provided the name and emails of the two companies that committed this theft, as well as providing all this information to the Police, who are apparently just putting it in the "too hard" basket, and as yet the bank has not had the opportunity to contact these scam companies, if they intend to do so. It might just end up the same as the Police effort.
So, my warning is, DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO INSTALL "ANY DESK" ON YOUR COMPUTER>