Romance scam: Why this Westpac Bank teller REFUSED to let a customer cancel her own account

A bank teller has been praised for saving a customer from losing millions in a cruel romance scam.

The woman approached Marlena Karbowski at the Westpac branch in Liverpool, western Sydney, and asked her to cancel her home insurance because she was planning to sell it.

Karbowski asked why he was selling his house after noticing the client was nervous.

The woman initially said she was “helping her son” but capitulated and admitted it was to free her boyfriend from an overseas prison.

The teller immediately realized something was up and asked the woman to come to his office to investigate further.

Mrs Karbowski asked the woman when her boyfriend had last taken her out for coffee, to which she replied: “Actually, never, we met online.”

She asked the woman for a photo of her supposed boyfriend and performed a reverse image search on Google.

The results showed that the man was not who he said he was.

“All the photos he received were online, but under different names,” Karbowski said. 9News.

‘We cried together and I accompanied her to the police station to report it.

“We worry and when we see those red flags, we act.”

The customer is not the only Australian victim of “romance scams”, with more than $34 million lost in 2023, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s ScamWatch.

Most of the victims are between 55 and 64 years old.

Despite being the second most damaging type of scam in Australia, it is still overshadowed by investment scams that scammed Australians out of $290 million.

Westpac on Tuesday revealed an AI-powered feature called SaferPay that will protect its customers.

SaferPay identifies “high-risk” transactions and will “ask you a few quick questions to get more information,” such as why the payment is being made and who it is targeting.

“While our prevention measures have led to a significant drop in customer losses over the last year, fraudsters continue to take millions of dollars from our customers every month,” Westpac CEO Peter King said in a statement.

“This innovation is the first of its kind in Australia and will add significant friction to payments that are considered high risk of fraud.”