Angela recognised the 'hi mum' scam too late — but feels her bank let her down with what came next
Angela recognised the 'hi mum' scam too late — but feels her bank let her down with what came next
After falling victim to scams, the 83-year-old spent three months chasing an answer from her bank's fraud department.
Watch out for scams, folks
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“Maybe I should call my son and check…”
My dad is well-trained to call me for anything that looks even slightly off. Some of the scams thrown at him have been very convincing.
My in-laws too, now. They were taken in by a scammer who got full control of their Internet banking account. Thankfully, NAB's anti-fraud protection kicked in and prevented the loss of a lot of money.
These scammers target the elderly. They are without scruples and will laugh while taking someone's life savings. I honestly don't know how they live with themselves.
Advice for spotting scams:
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Microsoft don't call you. I've worked with Microsoft gold partners for over fifteen years, I have premier support packages and the ability to raise requests with them. My employers/customers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for me to be able to do this. They never initiate contact even with me. They sure don't do that with regular users. If "Microsoft" is calling, it's a scam. Every. Single. Time.
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If the contact is coming from a company you don't deal with, it's a scam.
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If the contact is coming from a company you do deal with: they will know your name and account details. If they initiate the call and want to confirm any information with you, ask for a reference number and hang up. Then go to their website, call the contact number and provide the reference number before confirming anything. If they are reluctant to do this, they are a scam.
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Don't just rely on scammers looking/sounding like scammers. I've seen some really legitimate looking phishing attempts. They'll know your name, employer, address. They'll be super friendly and helpful. If on the phone, they'll be confident and efficient. But so will the real company. If you didn't call them, be very on-guard.
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Never ever, for any reason, provide either your password or that confirmation code if they initiate the contact.
I am THRILLED to say my parents have learned the same. I would rather them call me about every single Windows Update message than have them call for a single scam
Great points! I'd say never provide your password or confirmation code ever on the phone. They shouldn't have you password stored anyway. Only a salted hash of it.
Grr - jebora failed me on the reply. Sorry for the spam.
Some places will use a password or code they send to you in order to ID you. My ISP will use my password to ID me. The bank will sms me a code for some interactions. That's why the disclaimer on them initiating contact.
Another good one is 'you cant win a competition that you never entered'
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The thing that got me with this is that it somehow went from "I've got a $3,000 bill I need to pay" to her transferring $10,000. Is my family weird, or is that something that most people would just do? I mean, even taking out the whole scam bit, do people actually just hand out that type of money without a serious conversation about what exactly is going on? I'd be really worried that there was some sort of gambling or drug problem behind something like that, I'd be dropping everything to make real contact and figure out what's going on.
She's 83. I know one of my grandmothers, who is in her mid-80s and lives alone, is constantly trying to offload her savings to the rest of the family because she doesn't want to spend it on herself. Her children keep telling her to keep the money, but she refuses to listen. Maybe there is a similar thing going on here.
I could well be. All of these scams seem to prey on some sort of anxiety, and often on people trying to do the right thing.
I wonder how much we could reduce scams if we focussed on helping people with managing finances and dealing with financial systems, instead of focusing on "personal responsibility". It seems like scams used to focus on greedy people looking for a get rich quick scheme, now they target people who are just trying to manage day to day, and with all of the changes we've made to how things work it's not easy to keep up.
There definitely needs to be some sort of ongoing and widespread education initiative in place to help people protect themselves. Relying on companies and/or governments to function perfectly, or blaming victims who are extremely vulnerable through no fault of their own, doesn't work. As long as Australians don't understand how anything works or the risks associated with what they are doing, they will continue to fall victim to scams, data breaches, identity theft, etc. It's actually painful when I watch other people use a web browser and they don't even know how to install an ad-blocker. Just the absolute basics like that are completely beyond the average person.
Hmm I doubt it since in the articles it says she's had many sleepless nights about the lost money, not to mention the lengths she's gone to to get it back.