Commonwealth Bank customer scammed out of $40,000 by crooks posing as Amazon Prime workers
A man suffering from cancer claims his bank told him it was his fault that scammers cheated him out of thousands of dollars.
Barry Casey, 69, from Sydney, who has ‘three forms of cancer’, was duped out of $40,000 by scammers in May 2022.
When he contacted his 64-year-old bank, the Commonwealth Bank, he claimed he was told the money could not be recovered and that the loss of the money was his fault.
The Sydney man relied on his savings to pay for rising healthcare costs for his treatments and has since struggled to keep up with his expenses.
The story started when Mr Casey was on holiday in the Philippines and he received an email from scammers posing as Amazon Prime employees.
Barry Casey (pictured), 69, who has cancer, lost $40,000 to scammers posing as Amazon Prime in 2022
The email thanked him for signing up for an Amazon Prime account and informed him that $99.99 would be debited from his account within two weeks.
Mr. Casey received these emails daily from then on.
He returned to Australia feeling seriously ill with a fever, ‘devastating cough’ and difficulty sleeping.
At some point during his sleep deprivation, Mr Casey decided to call the number the scammers had sent him in their emails.
A scammer who answered the phone claimed to be from Amazon Prime’s fraud team and told him the person sending the emails was trying to steal his banking information.
They asked Mr Casey to forward his personal details and confirm his bank details in an attempt to catch the fake scammer.
Mr Casey said the conversation raised “alarm bells” and he initially tried to withdraw from the conversation several times.
But the Sydneysider admitted he fell for the man’s persuasive attitude and “scare tactics” because he wasn’t “thinking clearly”.
The conversation was between multiple scammers on the line posing as members of Amazon’s fraud team, with Mr Casey consistently providing his information to stop the fake scammer.
He quickly provided his personal, bank and device details to the fraudsters.
‘All the while, in the back of my mind, I trusted the bank. They think they won’t let this happen. If this is a scam, the bank will recognize it. I had blind faith in the bank, unfounded, as it turned out,” he said 7News.
Mr Casey was told by the scammers not to access his banking details until they carried out their ‘investigation’ and was asked to enter a NetBank verification code, which he did.
A panicked Mr Casey rushed to his local Commonwealth Bank branch, but was later told nothing could be done and the loss of money was ‘his fault’ (stock image)
He then went to sleep and shockingly discovered that $40,000 had disappeared from his account through three transactions.
A panicked Mr Casey rushed to his local Commonwealth Bank branch to see if the lost money could be recovered. He also reported the matter to the police.
Unfortunately, the bank explained that there was nothing they could do to help Mr. Casey.
“It was only within 24 hours that the bank contacted me and said, ‘It’s your fault,'” he said.
‘I just stopped straight away. I berated myself about it and thought: You deserved this for being so stupid.’
Customers can report suspected scams to CommBank’s 24/7 Cyber Security Center.
Anyone who has clicked on a suspected scam link should contact the bank immediately to let them know so the account can be locked.
The Commonwealth Bank is currently working on new scam detection, prevention and education initiatives to prevent their customers from being defrauded by scammers.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Commonwealth Bank for comment.