An elderly retiree is desperate after she was tricked out of her life savings while she was at the bank trying to prevent her funds from being stolen.
Gay de Beer, 73, was scammed by a remote access scam that left her Bendigo Bank account completely drained of her $44,000 savings in May.
The Melbourne resident had been working on her laptop when the screen went black and a message appeared alerting her about a major virus.
Mrs de Beer thought she was doing the right thing by calling the number that claimed to be for Microsoft.
The operator told her that someone was trying to hack her PayPal account and that the 73-year-old woman’s debit card details had also been leaked.
“Maybe I got swept away, but I kept listening and asked if it was a scam,” he said. news.com.au.
Mrs de Beer gave them access to her computer so they could stop the fraudulent activity and watched as they took control of the computer.
Shockingly, the remote access scam only took 25 minutes to completely strip Ms de Beer of her hard-earned savings.
Gay de Beer, 73 (pictured), was scammed out of her $44,000 in savings when she fell victim to a remote access scam.
Pensioner claims Bendigo Bank has shown little empathy regarding her ordeal
While the transactions were being carried out, the pensioner realized what was happening and ran to the nearest Bendigo Bank branch, five minutes away.
Mrs de Beer, who has no family in Australia, is angry that at least one of the transactions was not stopped because she was at the bank alerting staff about what was happening.
Some of the transfers were deposited into accounts that had letters and numbers that made no sense as the account name.
Mrs de Beer now wonders why the bank did not detect this as fraudulent activity.
The ordeal has left her feeling suicidal and she claims Bendigo Bank has shown little empathy.
The pensioner had the money as a safety net to help her pay rent and car expenses, and has been doing some accounting and ride-sharing work to help her survive on her limited income.
Mrs de Beer is angry after police told her one of the fraudulent transactions was transferred to another Bendigo Bank account, but the bank only recovered $7,500.
It only took the scammers 34 minutes to empty the pensioner’s account (file image)
The fraudulent transactions were divided into four and the amounts were $19,900, $9,900, $4,900 and $9,400.
Mrs de Beer doesn’t understand why the scammers got away with emptying her account without being caught, especially when she has the names of the two accounts her money was transferred to.
“Bendigo Bank said I was fully and completely responsible for the transactions as I gave them access through my biometrics,” he said.
“I’m totally screwing myself thinking I’ve lost all my money.”
The Melbourne resident, who receives $540 a week in pension and pays $270 a week in rent, has taken her case to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
At a recent settlement meeting, her bank only offered her $2,000 in goodwill, which she rejected.
As banks are required to pay money to AFCA as part of the process when a complaint is made, Mrs de Beer cannot understand why they cannot simply deposit money into her account.
She is at her peak and pointed out that the bank refunded another scam victim’s money in full, and should do so for all of its customers.
Bendigo Bank told news.com.au they take “cyber security” very seriously and are urging customers to make sure they protect themselves by not sharing passwords or allowing someone they don’t know to log into their computer remotely.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Bendigo Bank for further comment.
If you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline Australia 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36.
