Texts from a classy rip-off that fleeced a younger Melbourne couple out of just about $100,000 have been revealed.
The messages, which got here from a seemingly respectable Westpac quantity initially instructed Sarah and her accomplice James there had been suspicious exercise on their Uber account.
Having not too long ago returned from an interstate journey the place they often used the rideshare service, the 27-year-olds had been positive it added up.
“It all made sense at the time and we now know we shouldn’t have clicked the link, but it came on the Westpac text chain where we had previous messages (from the bank),” Sarah instructed NCA NewsWire.
The first message instructed James to click on a hyperlink and replace his bank card particulars, which he proceeded to do.
More than an hour later one other textual content, apparently from Westpac, stated scammers had been making an attempt to switch $5500 from the couple’s account.
Within the message was instruction to contact a person named David Hale from the financial institution’s safety staff.
Further texts from the obvious Westpac quantity appeared to tell the couple their cash was put into a brand new account below their names.
After days of calls with the person whose quantity gave the impression to be an official Westpac line, the couple had been instructed to open and switch massive sums into a brand new account to maintain it from the obvious fraudsters.
The cash was anticipated to hit their new account days later, the couple was instructed, however when the day got here and issues didn’t go to plan, the couple turned apprehensive.
“We probably had a hunch on the Friday, I think, when the phone line was disconnected and that’s when the penny dropped which obviously led us to call Westpac and that really confirmed it,” Sarah stated.
In complete, life financial savings of $98,000 supposed for use for journey and mortgage repayments was faraway from the account.
Five months later the couple have been given no avenue to get the funds again.
“Police told us that obviously it was offshore and potentially moved into Bitcoin and crypto which is a bit complicated,” Sarah stated.
“Westpac essentially said they’re not responsible and that they weren’t reimbursing us, which was just a shocking sort of customer service experience.”
Westpac has supplied the couple simply $3000 in compensation thus far.
In an announcement, the financial institution stated it was unable to touch upon particular person buyer issues “due to confidentiality obligations”.
“We’ve seen a recent spike in impersonation scams where scammers pose as a known business to trick you into sending them money or personal information,” a Westpac spokesperson stated.
“Customers should be wary of any unexpected calls, SMS or emails claiming to be from their bank or other reputable organisation and always stop to consider what you’re being asked to do.
“If in doubt, hang up and call back on a publicly listed number to confirm if the call was genuine. Westpac will never ask a customer to transfer their money to another bank in order to protect their account.”
