A woman who became suicidal after losing $44,000 to scammers in 25 minutes claims her bank offered her counseling sessions instead of trying to fully recover her money.
Gay de Beer, 73, from Seaford in Melbourne, contemplated taking her own life after scammers tricked her out of her life savings from her Bendigo Bank account in May.
The bank recovered $7,200 and offered her an additional $2,000 in June, which angered Mrs. de Beer and led her to go public with the matter in November.
Ms de Beer told Daily Mail Australia the bank approached her afterwards and made her a “despicable” offer instead of trying to recover the rest of the money.
‘Bendigo Bank sent a letter offering me six free counseling sessions. Isn’t that despicable? she said.
‘I can’t even respond to something like that. It’s absurd.’
Ms de Beer shared a copy of the email saying the bank “recognises” the recent article and was “sorry to hear” about the impact the scam had on her “health”.
“I understand that being a victim of fraud has emotional impacts as well as financial ones,” it said.
Gay de Beer, 73 (pictured), was scammed out of her life savings after someone remotely accessed her bank account. Now he is fighting to get his money back.
Bendigo Bank offered pensioner counseling services after she was scammed instead of refunding her money (pictured)
The bank then offered counseling sessions with an “external support agency” that is “dedicated to providing specialist support and guidance”.
This final insult came after Mrs de Beer rejected the bank’s offer of a “symbolic” compensation of $2,000, after they had only managed to recover $7,200 of their savings.
The pensioner is angry and confused that the bank cannot refund her because the scammers used Bendigo Bank accounts to transfer her money.
Although Ms de Beer has the names and numbers of the accounts, she claims the bank will not give her any information or updates, even if the scammer’s accounts have been closed.
“It was transferred to two Bendigo Bank accounts,” he said.
‘And they won’t go into details for privacy reasons. So there is no transparency there.”
The tech-savvy retiree, who does accounting and drives for Uber to supplement her $540-a-week pension, never thought she’d be scammed.
“I thought I was immune to all this,” he said.
Ms de Beer’s bank received the names and numbers of accounts the fraudsters used to transfer their money and concluded that “the transactions were carried out” by the pensioner (pictured).
‘My screen went black. My computer is my work and it went completely black.
“Then he told me to call Microsoft and gave me the number.”
De Beer said the only thing he could think about at the time was losing his job and he knew he needed to fix the computer.
“The person I spoke to said there is a direct deposit on my PayPal for $9,000,” he said.
‘I gave them access to my computer through a program.
‘I even asked them, “Is this a scam?”
“They said, ‘No, we’re helping you, it’s not a scam. “We do this all the time.”
“Yeah, you do it all the time, you scam people, you fucking bastards.”
Mrs de Beer said she was watching them on her computer, but soon saw them transferring money from her account.
“I went to the branch, which is five minutes away, and I said, ‘I think I’m being scammed,'” he said.
“I was devastated.”
But after complaining to the bank, he received a letter dated May 15.
“We have investigated the transactions on your behalf and have concluded that they were carried out by you,” the letter said.
The pensioner couldn’t believe the “heartless” response, especially as she was at the bank while the transfers were being made.
‘Sorry, fuck that. I personally did not transfer that money,’ he said.
“Bendigo has basically put all the blame on me,” he said. They said I gave them my biometric data. I’m not saying it’s not to blame.
‘But at the end of the day, it was transferred to two Bendigo bank accounts. Banks are supposed to be there to help you. They don’t help you.’
Ms de Beer’s advice to anyone like her who believes they are above being scammed is to “trust nothing”.
‘Just don’t answer anything. “If someone says they are here to help you, don’t trust them,” he said.
They are so fucking smart. They just throw you in: hook, line and sinker.
A Bendigo Bank spokesperson said the bank took cyber security “very seriously”.
“By working together with our customers, we can further reduce the incidence of scams and fraud,” he said.
‘It is important that customers take steps to protect themselves and do not share their passwords or allow someone they do not know or trust to log into their computer remotely, as it is extremely difficult to recover money that has been transferred to customers. scammers.
“Bendigo Bank attempts to recover funds lost in scams wherever possible and it goes without saying that where the bank is at fault we will refund customers for their lost funds.”
If you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline Australia 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36.