Sophisticated text scam robs woman of her life savings as an expert gives bank customers a chilling warning

A woman has fallen victim to one of the latest sophisticated text message frauds, losing her life savings to a fraudster posing as her bank.

Suni Wan from Sydney received a text message from HSBC at 8.34pm on December 1, warning of possible fraudulent activity on her account.

The text, which appeared in the same thread as the messages her bank normally sends her, alerted her to a new device in Perth trying to log into her account and urged her to call the assigned number if it wasn't her.

When Wan called the number, he was scammed out of $49,000, part of the $16 million Australians have lost to bank scams since January.

An expert has warned that customers can no longer defend themselves against these scams as they become increasingly difficult to spot.

“We have reached a point where scams are so sophisticated that individual consumers cannot protect themselves from scams,” said Stephanie Tonkin of the Consumer Action Law Center.

“(The banks) are in a position to be able to stop scams, to be able to disrupt scams they need to be in control to pay back customers.”

“This refund will boost the investment needed to disrupt the scams in this country,” she added.

Wan was told by the caller that another device was trying to log into her account, a Samsung S8 in Perth.

“I accidentally lost an S8 phone a few years ago,” Wan said A current issueadding that she thought someone had gotten their hands on her old phone.

She was asked to provide her full name, address and date of birth to verify her identity, before the man on the phone asked Wan to generate a one-time passcode on her phone and hand it over so they could resolve the issue for her.

“Then he said there had been some unusual activity and he put me on hold for a while,” Wan added.

After she was taken off hold, the caller started asking about her cryptocurrency account, which set off alarm bells in Wan's head. She then hung up and immediately called HSBC to freeze her account.

Ms Wan lost her savings of $49,000 after being duped by scammers posing as her bank

The HSBC number had been spoofed by scammers, allowing them to send the fake message in the same thread as the legitimate messages.

“It finally dawned on me, why would HSBC be concerned about my Coinspot, they wouldn't pass my details on to a representative, they would tell me to call Coinspot directly,” she explained.

“The hardest thing for me is to stop blaming myself, the way I keep blaming myself, maybe I should have noticed it sooner.”