A man with cancer claims his bank told him it was his fault scammers cheated him out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Barry Casey, 69, a Sydney man with “three forms of cancer”, was scammed out of $40,000 by scammers in May 2022.
After contacting his bank of 64 years, the Commonwealth Bank, he claims he was told the money could not be recovered and that the loss of the funds was his fault.
The Sydney man relied on his savings to pay for the mounting healthcare costs associated with his treatments and has struggled to meet his expenses ever since.
The saga began when Mr Casey was on holiday in the Philippines and received an email from scammers posing as Amazon Prime workers.
Cancer sufferer Barry Casey (pictured), 69, lost $40,000 to scammers posing as Amazon Prime in 2022
The email thanked him for opening an Amazon Prime account and informed him that $99.99 would be charged to his account in two weeks.
From then on, Mr. Casey received these emails daily.
He returned to Australia seriously ill, suffering from a fever, “severe cough” and problems sleeping.
At one point, while sleep deprived, Mr. Casey decided to call the number the scammers had sent him in their emails.
A scammer who came to the phone claimed to be from Amazon Prime’s fraud team and told her that the person who sent the emails was trying to steal her banking details.
They asked Mr Casey to hand over his personal information and confirm his banking details in a bid to catch the fake scammer.
Mr Casey said the conversation rang a “wake-up call” and he initially attempted to remove himself from the conversation several times.
But the Sydneysider admitted he fell for the man’s convincing attitude and “scare tactics” because he wasn’t “thinking clearly”.
The conversation took place between several online scammers claiming to be from Amazon’s fraud team, where Mr. Casey systematically gave his information to stop the fake scammer.
He quickly provided his personal, banking and telephone details to the fraudsters.
“All the while, deep down, I trust the bank. Thinking they won’t allow this to happen. If it’s a scam, the bank will recognize it. I had blind faith in the bank – baseless, as it turned out,” he said. 7News.
The scammers told Mr Casey not to open his banking details until they had carried out their “investigation” and were asked to complete a NetBank verification code prompt, which he did.
Panicked, Mr Casey rushed to his local Commonwealth Bank branch but was later told nothing could be done and the loss of funds was “his fault” (stock image)
He then fell asleep and shockingly discovered $40,000 missing from his account via three transactions.
Panicked, Mr Casey rushed to his local Commonwealth Bank branch to see if the lost funds could be recovered. He also filed a police report.
Unfortunately, the bank explained that there was nothing they could do to help Mr. Casey.
“It was only within 24 hours that the bank got back to me and said, basically, ‘this is your fault,’” he said.
“I stopped immediately. I scolded myself about it and thought you deserved this because you were so stupid.
Customers can report suspected scams to the CommBank Cyber Security Center 24/7.
Anyone who clicks on a suspected scam link should contact the bank immediately to inform them so that the account can be locked.
Commonwealth Bank is currently working on new scam detection, prevention and education initiatives to prevent its customers from being defrauded by fraudsters.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Commonwealth Bank for comment.
