A young woman has exposed the red flags she missed after falling victim to a scammer and losing more than $2,500 over the phone.
Taylor Maree, who lives in Brisbane, lost the amount after a man called her from an unknown number claiming to be from Virgin Money on June 6.
Virgin Money offers financial services including home loans, credit cards and superannuation and is owned by the Bank of Queensland Group.
Ms. Maree, who shared her experience on TikToksaid the man claimed fraudulent activity had been detected on his account.
“He says, ‘I’m not going to ask you for your personal information, I just need to confirm with you whether these transactions are yours,'” she said.
Taylor Maree (pictured), who lives in Brisbane, lost a whopping $2,500 after a man called her on an unknown number on June 6, claiming to be from Virgin Money.
The man began listing various expenses claiming that a purchase of $800 had been made on Amazon and $1,600 on an unknown website.
She told the man she didn’t make any of those purchases before he responded by saying he would reverse them immediately.
He said he would text her a one-time passcode and asked if he could read it back to her.
“He texts me and it looks like it’s the same number I get my Virgin Money information on,” Ms Maree said.
Unaware that the man was not who he said he was, Maree read the PIN number before realizing she had just lost thousands of dollars.
‘I re-read the message and it said: “This is to complete the £1,661 transaction.”
Maree immediately contacted her bank and was told that her card had been canceled and that all transactions on her account would be blocked.
The man sent Maree a one-time PIN code in a text message which she read to him over the phone, along with the code used by the scammer to steal the funds (file image).
Maree urged people to be aware of the “red flags” that they are being targeted by scammers (file image)
He was told it would be at least six to eight weeks before the bank would notify him if his funds would be recovered.
Ms Maree was warned she might not get her money back as she read the pin to the scammer.
He urged others to watch for “red flags,” including calls made from an ID without caller ID.
“These scammers are getting very clever at what they do and getting away with it,” Ms Maree said.
‘Please be very careful. If it is an unknown number, simply hang up and call the bank. “I wish I had done that because now I wouldn’t be so stressed about whether I’m going to get this money back or not.”
His TikTok video was flooded with comments from hundreds of social media users who shared similar experiences.
“It’s really sad, I also got scammed the same way for about $90,000,” one wrote.
“I was scammed out of $50k through a payment to an energy provider,” another wrote.
Others said people should be more alert as scammers use sophisticated methods to carry out their activities.
“Answering an unknown number is completely crazy,” one person wrote.
“Never do any transaction while they are calling you… hang up and call the bank,” another person wrote.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Bank of Queensland for comment.
Australians have been warned not to answer phone calls from an unknown number, after several people shared their experiences of losing thousands of dollars (file image)
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Catriona Lowe has warned Australians that scammers are using emails, phone calls and web pop-ups to target people.
“Never download software or apps if someone tells you to over the phone, and never share banking information, passwords or two-factor identification codes,” Lowe said.
Australians lost more than $2.7 billion to scams in 2023, with 601,000 reports made to the ACCC last year alone.
Text messages were the most common method used by scammers to target victims, while fraudulent calls caused the largest financial loss worth $116 million.
