My Mother Was Just Fleeced by a Phone Text Scam. Any Tips on Dealing with Her Bank?

Fappo on 05/11/2022 - 19:56
Last edited 06/11/2022 - 11:03 by 1 other user

This morning some arsehole just conned my elderly mum out of a significant amount of money via text messaging (and her being an idiot who deposited cash into their bank account).

When I heard and came over to help my distraught mum she had been waiting on hold to speak to the Commonwealth Bank fraud/scam line for over half an hour. She wasn't able to speak to anyone to report the fraud for well over an hour of being on hold. I would assume that time is of the essence to be able to have any chance of recovering the money, so I found this a bit disappointing.

There will be slim to no chance of recovering the money, according to the Commonwealth call centre guy.

So anyway, I was wondering if anybody has any experience with this sort of thing and if there is anything that can or should be done.

Financial

Comments

  • Hybroid on 05/11/2022 - 20:00
    +3

    Well sometimes transfer/deposits over weekend take time or aren't processed till Monday. I would keep calling 13 2221 and speaking to fraud team specifically to try and stop the payment.

    https://www.commbank.com.au/support.security.how-to-report-f…

    • Fappo on 05/11/2022 - 20:02
      +1

      That has been done. The bank is aware of the transaction.

      • Hybroid on 05/11/2022 - 20:04
        +3

        Then all you can do is try and glean as much info as you can on the scammers and report to Police and Scamwatch.

        • Fappo on 05/11/2022 - 20:17
          +1

          Yeah, I guess it should be reported to the police — for all the good it will do (probably none).

  • Ghost47 on 05/11/2022 - 20:22
    +6

    The other day I was on the train just browsing my phone minding my own business. The lady next to me was talking on the phone and at one point she tapped me on the shoulder and asked to borrow a pen, so I lent one to her. After she was done and got off the phone she gave me my pen back, then started telling me about how she was just scammed out of $19,000 worth of money. She was pretty emotional so I think she just needed to vent to someone.

    She showed me her bank account and showed me the transaction and lo and behold she was actually scammed. Said someone called her on an Australian number and said they were from CommBank, she was at the hospital earlier on and said she wasn't in the right headspace so ended up just believing whoever was on the line. I think she realised it was a scam after she transferred the cash, she contacted the fraud department but I think she was waiting for a message back or something. She didn't speak much English so was going home to get her kids to help her.

    Not sure if the bank can do anything but I hope she gets the money back. Randomly toward the end of the chat she told me her son was on Masterchef and told me to look up his Instagram, so I did and then when she got off the train I messaged him to let him know (he lives interstate from her). He saw my text the next morning but replied saying he didn't think it was his mum as she doesn't really catch the train, but then called her after and found out she was actually scammed.

    Anyway, I hope your mum gets her cash back. With these types of scams, where the person being scammed willingly transfers money to another bank account, I don't think getting there's really much chance of getting the money back.

    People need to tell their parents not to trust any calls from any "banks" because Australian numbers can be easily spoofed these days.

    • jv on 05/11/2022 - 20:32
      +4

      People need to tell their parents not to trust any calls from any "banks"

      What about calls from:

      • "Telstra"
      • "ATO"
      • "Amazon"

      ???

      • Ghost47 on 05/11/2022 - 20:34
        +7

        Good point, jv. Those too.

    • Stopback on 05/11/2022 - 20:59
      -1

      What is the scam. We are from the bank.

      We found that someone is tracking your account. To protect your account please transfer your money. To another account.

    • Fappo on 05/11/2022 - 22:20
      +2

      Thanks for the kind thoughts. Thankfully mum isn't financially ruined, but it was a very decent chunk of change the cvnt got.

      It wasn't a phone call pretending to be a bank or anything, it was text messages that tricked her into thinking she was paying/lending money to help my sister.

      • ShannonN on 05/11/2022 - 22:45
        -7

        thats been in the news for weeks now maybe mum needs to read the news or hand in the phone

        • Fappo on 06/11/2022 - 00:05
          +3

          Cool, thanks for your input, champion.

      • Stopback on 05/11/2022 - 23:10

        Interesting it's a different bank account for your sister?

        • md333 on 06/11/2022 - 15:42
          +1

          Part of the issue is that for bank transfers they don't check the name against the account, so likely asked to transfer to an account with her sister's name, but different acct numbers.

  • CyberMurning on 05/11/2022 - 20:22

    Maybe transfer all the remaining money out to a safe account, and close it?

    Well its the customers fault, dont think bank need to refund?

    • jv on 05/11/2022 - 20:30
      -4

      Well its the customers fault, dont think bank need to refund?

      I disagree, I think that bank has a fiduciary duty to their customer to have processes in place to reverse these transactions.
      The government is equally at fault for not regulating and mandating this be implemented.

      • tsunamisurfer on 05/11/2022 - 20:50
        +5

        No. The responsibility lies with the individual.

        I can only imagine what dirty tricks people can pull if banks can reverse transactions at a whim.

        • mbck on 05/11/2022 - 20:57

          Agree. Its always someone else's fault.

          To avoid these issues, i tell my parents, frequently, to be aware of scams.

          • jv on 05/11/2022 - 21:11
            -3

            @mbck: So you are therefore siding with the scammers…

          • jjjaar on 05/11/2022 - 21:12
            +1

            @mbck: So if your parents told you they were scammed out of $50k you would just say “oh well, I told you about this. Tough luck”?

            • mbck on 05/11/2022 - 21:19
              +1

              @jjjaar: How did you come with that conclusion? Oh yeah ofc you have the thinking of its someone else's fault.

              No ofc i have to support my parents just as theyve supported me. That's why I frequently tell them about scams to avoid this in the first place. Thatd be on me for not educating my parents more. As well as themselves for not heeding the warnings.

              But hey the banks have a lot of money, they should compensate anyways right? When does that stop though? It's always their fault and never yours. The customer is always 'right'. Soon there'll be no integrity left.

              And same reply for jv. Im not for scammers duh, are you an actual idiot sandwich for even suggesting that? My point is personal responsibility. You cant make a law out of everything. Ahwell good luck to you all in life.

              • cookie2 on 06/11/2022 - 06:54

                @mbck: I agree with this (but not the idiot sandwich bit :) ) you can't make law upon law and a degree of personal responsibility needs to be encouraged in life instead of always a new law. Plus if banks could reverse that'd bring in some major complexities and new scams. People scamming and reversing payments when the buyer isn't aware, banks going to court about not removing or reversing funs that shouldn't have been etc. It's not on the business, it's on each of us. In saying this I have no blame for OPs mum, it's harder and harder to distinguish scams sometimes now and is further difficult for for older people that weren't brought up with the same digital literacy skills. Digital literacy to me includes being able to identify fake communications, dodgy practices etc online and through devices.

            • ShannonN on 05/11/2022 - 22:46

              @jjjaar: yes if thay were told in detail shown all the warnings on various social and news media yes

              • jjjaar on 05/11/2022 - 23:07

                @ShannonN: Yes ok let’s just falsely claim that those frequently being scammed are also those that use social media…

        • jjjaar on 05/11/2022 - 21:11
          -2

          No. The responsibility lies with the individual.

          This is victim blaming at its finest.

          The individuals are not aware that these are scams. It is equivalent to a child being lured away by a stranger. You legitimately do not know any better, and do not know how to identify a threat and protect yourself.

          Or do you think that children that are abducted are responsible for what has happened to them?

          • mbck on 05/11/2022 - 21:20

            @jjjaar: Your parents are not children though. And nothing is stopping you to teach your parents.

            Poor analogy. This is victim signaling.

            Good luck I'm out of this thread.

            • Fappo on 05/11/2022 - 21:38
              +2

              @mbck: "And nothing is stopping you to teach your parents."

              You can teach people all you can, and believe me, I have, but elderly people just aren't savvy sometimes and do lose their mental capacity as they grow older — especially when it comes to modern technology.

              • jjjaar on 05/11/2022 - 23:10
                +1

                @Fappo: I suffer from depression (amongst other things) and some weeks my ability to learn something new in something I’m quite familiar and competent in is just impossible. Even with the motivation and willingness to try, mental blocks can just stop new things from sinking in.

                To shame and victim blame other people for not being able to retain information about scams just because they themselves understand it is disgraceful.

              • Stopback on 05/11/2022 - 23:30

                @Fappo: Then you should have financial control over your parents affairs then if possible.

                The question is are more elderly people being scammed by relatives compared to scamers

          • cookie2 on 06/11/2022 - 07:31

            @jjjaar: No it's not victim blaming, stop trying to label it and twist @mbck words. They stated that if it's the customers fault (in the context of the business responsibility) then the bank doesn't need to refund. This is fact. Unless they do have a new policy that you're aware of? I actually think the fault is on government, individuals and society as a whole. Gov should be creating better ways to communicate with at risk groups so they know of scams, people should continue to self educate and we as a society are way too comfortable handing over our data and scanning qr codes.

        • Lovemydeals on 06/11/2022 - 12:17

          This is also applied to situations when selling anything on gumtree, fb marketplace to always request cash as the buyer can cancel transactions.

        • [Deactivated] on 06/11/2022 - 13:23
          +1

          No. The responsibility lies with the individual.

          Yes, but a few days transfer hold (time delay) would be nice, especially for elderly.

          • try2bhelpful on 06/11/2022 - 13:44
            +2

            @[Deactivated]: It would be good to be able to nominate for “non usual” transactions to be held for two days.

          • doczoid on 07/11/2022 - 16:38
            -1

            @[Deactivated]: A lot of transactions are held, but there are so many complaints about banks that regularly do this

  • boomramada on 05/11/2022 - 20:41

    And report to https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/report

  • GourmetFoodie on 05/11/2022 - 20:47
    +7

    Damn it’s bad out there right now. I keep telling my parents to watch out for this shit. The govt needs to stop unknown numbers being able to text phones.

    • cookie2 on 06/11/2022 - 07:35
      +1

      Agreed. And you should be able to block text numbers. Maybe an impossible idea but what if you could send a message to a number or something and it would communicate back if any similarities to other queried messages by other people? Similar to how you can check phone numbers online and view ppls comments to help decide if scam. The main thing being it would be government run, not private. And free. They'd use comp automation for the data.

    • OpticalCog on 06/11/2022 - 20:22

      For what it's worth was looking through iPhone settings earlier today and noticed there was an option to filter out messages from unknown numbers (not sure if it was text and/or just imessage). It's tricky as there are some legit messages that come from unknown senders. But would be good if there was a way to block all unknown numbers but excluded a list of known safe senders (e.g. Gov electorate messages, authorised banks, etc.)

  • Iwantthebestprice on 05/11/2022 - 20:49
    +5

    Scumbag of a human being scamming the elderly out of money… I hope karma gets these people bad and they drop dead! The banks really need to up their game here and make a process we’re funds to an overseas account can be put on hold for 24 hours to allow them to pull back the funds or a similar type of process to stop this happening

    • HairyChickens on 05/11/2022 - 20:55
      +6

      These scammers have no hearts. They even force elderly cancer patients who can't drive to walk kilometers to buy gift cards or they will be "arrested".
      While the victim is crying over the phone the scammer and their colleagues are sitting around in a circle laughing.

      I sincerely hope OP's mum gets her money back. Sh*t start to the weekend

    • capslock on 05/11/2022 - 22:18

      Scams will just evolve to take into account the 24 hour hold.

      Meanwhile countless numbers of legitimate transactions every day will be affected by this 24 hour hold and the whole integrity of the financial system will be put at risk if anyone can just reverse transactions by simply claiming it was a scam.

      • Iwantthebestprice on 05/11/2022 - 23:28
        +2

        I get this, however I feel that for personal transactions overseas there is a 24 hour hold, and for business etc there is no hold, to avoid business being disrupted. And if you claim it’s a scam then the bank returns the money and that’s it. Overseas sellers etc will wait more than 24 hours to send items to ensure the funds are not clawed back. It can be done, using statements like the entire financial system is put at risk does not do anything to help trying to solve the problem but rather puts it in the “to hard” basket.. sounds like a typical banker

  • Sweet3st on 05/11/2022 - 22:19
    +1

    Yep scammers everywhere. Posted an item on Gumtree today and was almost instantly contacted by ‘John’ who was ‘out of town’ so wanted to pay by PayPal and send his wife around who couldn’t get the modest amount of cash together. sigh
    The phone scams are out of control. I get the Telstra discount and energy discount scammers all the time. And, someone has been spoofing my number.

  • Zippy135 on 06/11/2022 - 00:19
    +2

    Hate these scammers. I’m sorry to hear your mum got scammed. I just found out something similar happened to my friends mum yesterday. She realised within 10min and called the bank. She was put on hold to the cyber team for 2 hours before being able to speak to someone. They told her they have a 30min window to reverse the charge but now it’s too late. I understand banks have processes but this isn’t helping victims if they can’t get through in a timely manner.

  • try2bhelpful on 06/11/2022 - 07:55
    +1

    It is shameful what these scammers will do. They particularly prey on the vulnerable like the elderly and migrants.

    My sister worked in the PO and was, always, warning people getting Money Orders about scammers.

    I hope your mom gets her money back. It depends on where the account she transferred it into is held. Overseas she has almost no chance.

    Never trust the “helping out a friend or family member” message. Contact the person first to see what gives.

    Frankly we are all vulnerable, at some time, so I don’t look down on people being scammed. We’ve all had the “I shouldn’t have done that” moment.

    Best of luck for your mum.

  • cashless on 06/11/2022 - 13:59
    +1

    AU Banks need be forced to implement 3 level verification when transferring funds (1) BSB (2) Acct # (3) Name on account matches. At the moment only (1) & (2) are required.
    3 level has been used in many European countries for some time & scams have been reduced

    • Quantumcat on 06/11/2022 - 18:20

      Number 3 is hard because there can be many ways of writing a name even if you get the spelling right, eg there could be a middle initial or the middle name included, and some nationalities swap first and last names on official paperwork. It would work if a human being is checking but difficult for a computer to solve.

      Maybe a solution could be, when you type in the BSB and account number your banking app tells you the name of the account. It feels a little like this could be a privacy breach (looking up people's names or business names by bank details) but I don't think it really is as you don't normally publish your bank details in places that you don't want people knowing your name or your business name (if it is a business account). This way a human is checking it, but it is the person transferring the money so it doesn't require millions of new staff members at banks to check every little transaction, and the power lies in the hands of the person it will affect if they are about to be scammed.

      • Hearthstone on 06/11/2022 - 22:54
        +1

        a hold on transaction, followed by a confirmation email or text something along the line you are transferring $XXX to this XX-true-account-name
        reply yes to release the transaction, no to cancel

        • Quantumcat on 06/11/2022 - 22:56

          Yeah that is better than going through the app, as people might click yes, continue etc without reading what's on the screen. A message coming through a different channel should hopefully break that stream and they might actually look at what it says.

          • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2022 - 11:17

            @Quantumcat:

            A message coming through a different channel

            No, you'll be opening a new can of worms. Right now actions can be done only via banking app or banking website. You're adding email as third way of performing actions, big mistake.

            • Quantumcat on 07/11/2022 - 15:00

              @[Deactivated]: Do banks not use sms 2FA anymore?

              The more channels used the more secure. It means someone needs to break into multiple things to steal money, and an extra chance for someone to realise if they are doing it themselves due to being tricked

  • md333 on 06/11/2022 - 15:44

    Some banks will allow you to cancel a card through the app or webpage. Too late for this one, but might be worthwhile as a first step before waiting on hold.

  • altomic on 06/11/2022 - 21:52
    +2

    I had a text message saying - "hi , it's mum. I left my CC at home. can you desposit $150 in to BSB xxxxx, Account number xxxxx. I'll pay you back when I get home , "

    knew it was a scam straight away as my mum doesn't know how to text.

    • try2bhelpful on 06/11/2022 - 21:54

      They are just shameless. You need to send that off to the relevant bank so they can hit the owner.

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 06/11/2022 - 22:33

    i feel for your mum but the money is gone no one will help her police will say it is a 'civil' matter and the bank insurance cover someone who 'willing' transfering their own money.

    as some one who was scammed out of 700 bucks 5 years ago i know the pain and im sorry - even taking it to small claims if you have all the flogs details will probably go no where

    it is one of those 'life' lessons some people have to learn hard to Never give anyone money without a guarantee of some kind over the phone the best thing to do i literally say i will not transfer you money i will contact the bank and discuss this matter myself

    • try2bhelpful on 07/11/2022 - 15:26

      I don’t see how fraud is a “civil” matter. If they misrepresented who they were it is a crime.

      • Quantumcat on 07/11/2022 - 15:59

        A civil matter would be someone not posting something you paid for, and I think you're right that this counts as fraud. However since 99.99999% of these sorts of scams are perpetrated from overseas (maybe using local money mules), the police probably can't be bothered to investigate since they know they'll hit a brick wall at some point. Trying2SaveABuck would be getting confused with gumtree/marketplace/amazon/ebay scams

        • try2bhelpful on 07/11/2022 - 20:14

          I wonder if these teams with identity fraud where people open bank accounts under someone’s name to launder the money. Surely, there must be patterns that would trigger alarms.

  • Daniel Plainview on 07/11/2022 - 15:37
    +1

    Thankfully some good advise the ONLY thing I'd contribute is to TRY and reassure your Mother than this is unfortunately very common, to work with her to find strategies you can put in place to ensure this doesn't happen in the future (as she could be seen by the con people as a 'mark' and targetted again) - but to ensure that her self esteem and confidence does not get badly damaged by this.

    Might sound silly but often after incidents like this sadly older people can take big knocks to their self confidence as they feel silly, too old and that nobody can be trusted.

    Show her some statistics on it - SBS had a good episode of Insight (their panel chat show on it) - I am sure Seniors websites will have some info. Losing the money sucks, but it's worse if this damages her quality of life and she goes into a cycle of feeling vulnerable from it. Best of luck. :-)

    PS. As 'pointless' as it seems ensure that you take the time to report it to Police etc - as unless the info on this is captured resources, law changes etc won't be able to be justified. It might not help your Mum this time but could possibly help many other people. :-)

  • Zippy135 on 07/11/2022 - 19:40

    This site might help provide some guidance too.
    https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/get-help/help-a-family-member

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