Alarm bells rang for bank staff who noticed a “spineless” scammer instructing an elderly customer what to say to increase her internet banking limit so he could steal her life savings.
An 84-year old woman, known as Stella, walked into her NAB branch at East Maitland and “nervously” asked staff to increase her daily limit from $5000 to $50,000 so she could transfer money to her son.
Customer adviser Tiffany Bailey noticed the customer was on the phone to someone and immediately knew something was up.
“The phone line went dead as soon as the caller heard my voice,” she said.
“Alarm bells started ringing for me straight away. I knew from my training and experience that something is not right here.”
Ms Bailey googled the phone number and discovered it was linked to a known scam.
The elderly customer burst into tears when Ms Bailey told her what was really going on.
Stella told staff that a man claiming to be from a major tech company had been threatening her to settle an outstanding debt.
“Stella’s adult son was waiting out the front of the branch. He had no idea she was being scammed,” Ms Bailey said.
“The criminal had gained remote access to Stella’s computer, generated images to convince her of the debt and coached her what to say to bank staff.”
When the man called again, bank manager Vanessa Kruger answered the phone and told the criminal they were on to him.
Ms Kruger told the scammer to stop calling Stella and that they would be reporting the incident to police.
“He hung up straight away like a spineless coward,” she said.
The staff reassured Stella no money had been taken from her accounts and told her to clean her computer.
Scamwatch reported that remote scams were one of the most common in Australia, costing people more than $2m this year.
They usually occur when someone calls pretending that you have a phone or internet problem and that you need to buy new software to fix it.
NAB Group Investigations executive Chris Sheehan said they were focused on fighting against criminals to help protect customers.
“Recognising scam red flags is crucial. These include a sense of urgency, unexpected contact, being asked to grant someone access to your device and ‘needing’ to move money to keep it ‘safe’,” he said.
“If you’re unsure, call the organisation the person claims to be from using details you’ve found yourself. For example, look up the organisation’s website or log in to its app.
“Stopping scams is like playing whack-a-mole. That’s why Australia’s all-of-ecosystem approach to tackling scams is world leading.”
