A family is furious with a bank or returned less than $50 to their stepmother after being defrauded of nearly $10,000.
The 75-year-old woman only got $48 back of the $8,400 she lost to scammers who spent six hours on the phone with her pretending to be from NBN.
During the conversation, she was tricked into giving the scammers remote access to her accounts.
The NBN had warned residents in her area that they were upgrading services in the area, giving the woman a false sense of security that the call was genuine.
During the call, scammers told the woman to stay near her computer while they asked a series of security questions.
They told her she qualified for a $2,470 rebate due to slow internet speeds, before asking her to leave the computer because of possible radiation emissions.
When the conversation ended, they asked her to leave the computer off for an hour.
Everything seemed normal until the woman logged into her emails days later and discovered that was her daily transaction limit had changed without her knowledge.
A family is furious with a bank for returning less than $50 to their stepmother after being scammed out of nearly $10,000
Her stepdaughter Felicity, who did not want to share her real name, said the National Australia Bank was not trying hard enough to get the money back.
“My parents are extremely shocked and they are now too scared to do anything on the computer, and I wonder how easily it seems to have happened,” she said. news.com.au.
“I am deeply frustrated on behalf of my parents and concerned for others who, despite having technological access for their daily activities, do not have the skepticism or up-to-date knowledge to identify and prevent scams.”
NAB tried to get the money back for only a month before closing the case.
Felicity was told that a ‘NAB fraud analyst had carried out a liability assessment and ruled that your parents are liable for the losses’.
However, the rating has not been provided and is only available internally.
NAB director of group investigations and fraud Chris Sheehan said he could not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.
Felicity revealed that the loss could have been much worse as her stepmother would receive a big reward housing settlement two weeks after she was scammed.
Mr Sheehan noted there had been an increase in the number of Australians falling victim to scammers.
“These criminals are constantly evolving in the way they target Australians,” he said.
Mr Sheehan said no one should allow anyone to access their devices remotely.
The stepdaughter of fraud victim Felicity, who did not want to share her real name, said National Australia Bank did not try hard enough to recover the money.
This can happen when victims are contacted via phone, text or email by a scammer falsely claiming to be from a well-known company that is helping them with something.
A spokesperson for the National Anti-Scam Center said remote access scams require the victim to download screen-sharing software that allows them to control the device remotely.
Then they usually ask fake security questions in an attempt to trick victims into giving up their real passwords so they can use them later when accessing accounts.
Felicity said she believes the scammers who targeted her stepmother were “piggybacking” on the fact that the NBN had already said it would service the area.
MAccording to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority’s annual review, more than 10,000 scams were reported in Australia in 2023/24.
This is an increase of 81 percent compared to the previous year.
According to Scamwatch, more than $5.8 million was lost to 5,352 remote access scams between January and September of this year.