A family has been left furious at a bank for returning less than $50 to their stepmother after she was scammed out of almost $10,000.
The 75-year-old only recovered $48 of the $8,400 she lost to scammers who spent six hours on the phone with her while pretending to be from NBN.
She was tricked into giving the scammers remote access to her accounts during the call.
The NBN had warned residents in their area that they were improving services in the area, giving the woman a false sense of security that the call was genuine.
During the call, the scammers told the woman to remain in front of her computer while they asked her a series of security questions.
They told him he was eligible for a $2,470 refund due to slow internet speeds before asking him to step away from the computer due to possible radiation emissions.
Once the conversation was over, they asked him to leave the computer off for an hour.
Everything seemed normal until the woman logged into her emails days later and discovered that her The daily transaction limit had been changed without her knowing.
A family have been left furious at a bank for giving back less than $50 to their stepmother after she was scammed out of almost $10,000.
His stepdaughter Felicity, who did not want to reveal her real name, said National Australia Bank did not try hard enough to recover the money.
“My parents are very shocked and are now too scared to do anything on the computer and it also baffles me how easily it seems to have happened,” he said. news.com.au.
“I am deeply frustrated on behalf of my parents and concerned for others who, despite having access to technology for their daily activities, lack the skepticism or the most up-to-date knowledge to identify and avoid scams.”
NAB only spent a month trying to recover the money before closing the case.
Felicity was told that “a NAB fraud analyst had carried out a liability assessment and found her parents responsible for the losses”.
However, the evaluation was not provided and is only available internally.
Chris Sheehan, NAB fraud and group investigations executive, said he could not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.
Felicity revealed that the loss could have been much worse as her stepmother was set to receive a large amount. housing agreement two weeks after being scammed.
Sheehan noted there had been an increase in the number of Australians falling victim to scammers.
“These criminals are continually evolving the way they target Australians,” he said.
Sheehan said that under no circumstances should anyone provide someone with remote access to their devices.
Felicity, the stepdaughter of the scam victim, who did not want to reveal her real name, said National Australia Bank did not try hard enough to recover the money.
this can happen when a scammer contacts victims by phone, text, or email and falsely claims to be from a well-known company offering help with something.
A spokesperson for the National Anti-Scam Center said remote access scams require the victim to download screen-sharing software that will allow them to control the device remotely.
After that, they usually ask fake security questions in an attempt to get victims to provide their real passwords to use later when accessing the accounts.
Felicity said she believes the scammers who attacked her stepmother took advantage of the fact that the NBN had already said it would serve the area.
METROAccording 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 from the previous year.
More than $5.8 million has been lost in 5,352 remote access scams between January and September of this year, according to Scamwatch