Listen to a Westpac scammer’s chilling attempt to swindle a New Zealand woman

A vicious con man tried to drain a woman from her savings by posing as her bank and warned her about fake fraud attempts.

The scammer, who identified himself as Martin Moore and spoke with a British accent, called a New Zealand woman who claimed to be from Westpac’s fraud prevention team.

He told her that an attempt had been made to transfer money from her bank account to someone in Mexico and asked her to confirm her personal details.

The scammer managed to use spoofing software that made it look like he was calling from Westpac.

The woman did not fall for the scammer’s tricks and ended the call before losing money.

Shared the audio of the call on Wednesday, Westpac said reported scams were up 33 percent in July from the previous year.

“I’m calling regarding your credit card, if you want to verify the authenticity of this call, you can check the number I’m calling you today, it’s on the back of your card,” the scammer was heard to say.

He confirms the number on the woman’s credit card before spinning his story about the fake money transfer.

The scammer asked if the woman was trying to transfer to someone in Mexico or if she had lost her card.

For added realism, he added that the call was recorded for “training purposes,” a disclaimer on nearly every call from corporate customer service.

“Now just to confirm you’ve been to Mexico before and used your card in Mexico?” he said, to which the woman said she had, but not for decades.

He politely told her that Westpac had to cancel her card and send her a new one.

“We’re going to cancel this transaction for you today too, okay ma’am?” he said.

The woman was then asked to read out a cancellation code sent to her number.

He tried to walk her through a security check to confirm she was the account holder so he could “cancel” her card.

“Now I have verified myself for you today, I have confirmed to you that the number I am calling from is the number on your card,” he said.

When asked why he wasn’t calling from a New Zealand number, the scammer quickly lied, saying that because the transaction took place in Mexico, he was calling from Westpac’s international fraud team.

When he asked her to confirm her date of birth, the woman hinted, telling him she didn’t feel “comfortable” talking further.

“No problem, I totally understand, as long as you can call us right back,” the scammer replied.

Westpac said there were several red flags in the call that customers should be aware of, such as the fact that the call was unexpected.

The bank also said it would never send a code to cancel payments or ask customers to read a security code.

The scammer also repeatedly tried to confirm that he was calling from Westpac, which was a different tactic.

Westpac has since worked with Optus to block calls from scammers trying to impersonate the bank.

Nearly 95,000 Westpac phone numbers have been added to a ‘not originating’ list, meaning they cannot be used by scammers.

Ben Young, Westpac’s head of fraud, said scammers also masquerade as telecom providers, government organizations and even family members.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in cases where scammers use software to mask their phone number with the number of a well-known company,” he said.

“These scams are incredibly difficult to detect because from the customer’s perspective they appear to be called by, say, Westpac, when in fact they are a scammer posing as a member of our fraud team calling from a completely different number.

The scammer will then use personal information fraudulently obtained, such as mentioning the customer’s name or the last few digits of his credit card, to convince him that the call is genuine.

“If you’re ever in doubt, hang up and call back on a public number to make sure the call is genuine.”

Shared the audio of the call on Tuesday, Westpac said reported scams were up 33 percent in July, up from the previous year (stock image)