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After losing over $40,000 to a scammer, Thuy Le, the Sparkle Nails and Beauty worker in Wollongong struggles to cope with the financial and emotional toll. Le’s husband has Parkinson’s disease and cannot work, and the stolen money was their life savings for his treatment and their children’s education.
The scam began with a call from a man claiming to be a customer’s husband who had accidentally paid Thuy Le $60 and requested a refund. Le transferred the money, but more withdrawals were made from her account into the same account supplied by the caller. Despite not providing any personal information, Le lost $41,600.
“I am in financial hardship,” Le said of her three-month ordeal.
“I have two little kids; I have a husband with Parkinson’s disease, he cannot work. We are still in the process of applying for government help, and I have carried the financial burden on my shoulders.”
She reported the scam to her bank, Commonwealth Bank, but its investigation found it was not liable for her losses. CBA argued that all logins before the fraudulent transactions were made on the first attempt, which is highly unlikely for an unauthorised third party to guess.
“Had you reported the transactions immediately after the login … the chances of successfully recovering some of the funds would have been much higher,” CBA said.
“On the balance of probabilities, if you did not complete transactions yourself, you have provided NetBank credentials to a third party, who has gone on to perform the transactions.”
Thuy Le said the scamming incident gave her sleepless nights, and she cannot fathom why this happened. She is in dire need of money to buy her husband’s medicine.
The same incident happened to Donna Brain. Brain was all set to relocate to her new abode when an atypical transaction was credited to her account with Commonwealth Bank.
She also got a phone call, but this time from an impersonator claiming to be a banker and requesting the return of the funds. The 56-year-old healthcare worker dutifully gave back the $210, unaware that the fraudsters had already gained unauthorised access to her account and pilfered $200,000.
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