Great-grandmother Marie Marshall falls victim to a con artist posing as a Commonwealth Bank employee and loses her savings
- Marie Marshall fell victim to a scam
- He pretended to be an employee of the Commonwealth Bank
- Fraudster convinced 66-year-old to open fake account
A widow has only $4 in her wallet after she fell victim to a vicious scam and lost her entire savings.
Marie Marshall lost $21,000 when a con artist posing as a Commonwealth Bank employee convinced her to transfer her money to a new account to “keep it safe.”
The scammer called Ms. Marshall in May and told her he worked for the Commonwealth Fraud Unit.
She said the man was eloquent, had an Indian accent and came across as sincere after he mentioned her account numbers and balances
“He informed me that there were some suspicious transactions in my account, and Commonwealth thought my account had been compromised,” Ms Marshall said.
Marie Marshall, a 66-year-old widow and great-grandmother, has lost her life savings to a con artist
“To keep my accounts and money safe, he told me to open a new CBA account and transfer all my money there.”
Ms Marshall was also asked to download an app to transfer the money to the account, which was more secure than providing details over the phone as that’s what ‘scammers do’.
Ms. Marshall was unaware that the app gave the scammer full access to her phone, making it easy for him to take her money and use her credit cards
The great-grandmother, whom family and friends describe as an “Aussie battler” ready to lend a helping hand to anyone, was unaware of the cruel trick for two days until she read a Facebook account of someone who had been victimized of an identical scam.
“I immediately burst into tears and tried to access my bank account but couldn’t log in,” Ms Marshall said.
‘I then drove to an ATM nearby, but my PIN code didn’t work. I was heartbroken and very distraught.
“I was so embarrassed and I felt so stupid that I fell for the scam. I had always been so careful with money. My future will be a week-by-week living situation.”
Ms. Marshall only had $4 in her purse, meaning the fiercely independent woman who has always paid her own way had to turn to her family for financial help.
Posing as an employee of Commonwealth Bank’s fraud department, the scammer convinced Ms Marshall to use an app to transfer her money to a new account to keep it safe
In addition to the money stolen from her account, the scammer made more than $3,000 on her credit card.
The devastating chain of events left Mrs. Marshall suffering from depression and withdrawal from the world, which worried her family.
With the help of her daughter, Mrs. Marshall explained what happened to the bank, but they say the money cannot be recovered.
However, Westpac managed to recover $5,500 of Ms. Marshall’s money, which has been refunded to her.
The Commonwealth Bank has offered Ms Marshall compensation of only $4,490 but wants to pay $2,500 from the credit card bill.
Since the scam, Ms. Marshall has seen her Facebook account hacked, with all photos and contacts deleted, and has received up to 10 cold calls from unknown numbers every day.
The Commonwealth Bank insists Ms Marshall’s lost money is irrecoverable and she must cover most of a credit card debt accrued by the scammer
To help her, her son Chris Marshall has one GoFundMe page.
He said his mother had been saving her tax refund for the past seven years to buy a used car after she retired.
“Anyone who knows Marie knows how tough life has been,” the page reads.
“She raised 3 children on her own as a widow and worked hard all her life.
She’s always done without and budgeted her whole life on minimum wage.’
Her son says since the scam his mother’feels absolutely lost and is struggling both emotionally and financially.”
By Sunday morning, nearly $8,000 had been pledged to help her plight.