Grandma’s customer loses $750,000 from her ANZ account to scam
- Australian grandmother Jane was scammed out of $750,000
- He was asked to transfer funds to a fake account
- ANZ and NAB said there was nothing they could do
- READ MORE: ANZ customer loses $460,000 to fraudsters
An Australian grandmother was scammed out of $750,000 after accidentally sending money to a fraudulent bank account.
Jane, an ANZ customer for almost 50 years, took to the banks after losing a huge sum of money.
The grandmother had sold her house and was trying to transfer money to an ING account to get a better interest rate.
But instead, scammers asked him to transfer the funds to a fraudulent NAB account.
Jane contacted ANZ and NAB after realizing what had happened, but both banks told her her money was lost and there was little they could do to get it back.
Australian grandmother Jane, an ANZ customer for almost 50 years, hit out at the banks after being scammed out of $750,000 (stock image)
Jane says she has since lost faith in banks following the incident.
“I had absolute confidence in the banking system,” she said. 7News.
“But my money would have been safer under my mattress.”
Her daughter, Sarah, remembers feeling “horrible” that her mother “was the victim of a crime of this magnitude.”
Jane was then offered $1,000 by ANZ as compensation.
Australians who have been scammed are advised to contact their bank immediately.
However, there’s not much banks can actually do to recover lost funds.
Bank customers are not protected by law in Australia when it comes to fraud.
Unlike countries like the UK, where from next year new laws will force banks to reimburse victims of scams within days, unless the person acted negligently or fraudulent.
Consumer Action Law Center CEO Stephanie Tonkin believes Australians have been left wide open to scams due to a lack of regulation.
Jane was trying to transfer money to an ING account to get a better interest rate, but scammers asked her to transfer the funds to a fraudulent NAB account (stock image)
“We’ve dropped the ball because we don’t have any form of strict regulations saying who’s responsible,” she told the outlet.
She has previously called for tougher laws to protect customers.
“The onus cannot be on consumers to report the scam. What is needed is for the bank to invest in measures to prevent scams before they reach the consumer,” he said. she declared to ABC earlier this year.
“The UK, which is years ahead of us, has identified that bank reimbursement (is) the right approach to really tackling scams, which is why we will be pushing very hard for this to be included in the code of practice.”
In April, an ACCC report found Australians lost $3.1 billion to scams in 2022, prompting the federal government to commit $86.5 million to combat fraud in line.
