A grandmother with a terminal illness says an Australia-based bank should have been able to stop a scam as it unfolded in real time.
Lyn Reads says she is the victim of a scammer who stole about $50,000 AUD – worth about $32,000 USD – from her bank account, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
Reads initially received a text message that appeared to be from Bendigo Bank.
When she called the number in the message, she spoke to a criminal who convinced her that her account was under attack. Reads handed over her six-digit access code, which allowed the scammer to transfer her money to two accounts at the same bank.
When Reads began to suspect she had been duped by a scammer, she immediately visited her local branch.
According to Reads, a teller saved a few thousand dollars to her account and said the lender’s fraud team “should have the money back within two weeks.”
But nine months later, Reads is still embroiled in a dispute with the bank to get her money back.
Documents show that it took more than an hour after Reads notified her local branch before the accounts in question were labeled as ‘mule accounts’ – accounts used to raise money on behalf of criminals.
However, by then the money had already run out.
Reads says the bank should have acted sooner as the accounts involved in the theft were also held at Bendigo Bank. She also says the bank should have flagged the highly unusual transfers from her account.
“It involved large sums of money and it was very unusual for me.”
Bendigo Bank claims Reads is responsible for the loss since she revealed her access code to the scammer.
Reads, who has terminal cancer, says she depends on the money to enjoy her remaining days, spend time with her children and grandchildren and pay for her own funeral.
Last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it received more than 14,500 reports of banking impersonation scams, resulting in losses of more than $20 million AUD.
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