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A family from Sydney has lost their life savings worth $200,000 due to a fraudulent scam.
Peter and Madison, who have two children, face financial difficulties and may have to sell their home and move in with family. They have been saving money for the past 14 years but cannot afford groceries now.
“We are apprehensive about our finances because we are living on a tight budget due to a loss of $200,000. This has drastically altered our plans and pushed them back by five to 10 years,” Peter said.
“Our mortgage repayments used to be lower because we had $200,000 in an offset account. However, now that the money has been withdrawn, our offset account is empty, and we have to pay a lot more monthly,” Peter added.
“Fortunately, our combined salaries cover the mortgage payments. However, we still struggle to afford groceries for everyday life. Our family has been helping us with bare essentials like bread and milk,” Peter explained further.
Last December, the couple had a terrifying experience. Madison received a text message that seemed to be from Suncorp. It told her that a new pay ID had been set up for $895 and provided a phone number for her to call if the transaction was fraudulent. This message was part of a series of communications from the bank.
Madison immediately called the bank and confirmed the call’s legitimacy by answering several security questions. The bank informed her that her account had been hacked, and the hackers might create a fake passport or use someone to withdraw all the funds from a branch.
Unwittingly, Madison conversed with the fraudsters, who guided her to increase the transfer cap from $5,000 to $50,000, and transfer her family’s savings to a newly created bank account.
Madison was convinced the message was genuine, as it appeared in the same thread as previous communications from the bank. However, it was a classic ‘spoofing’ scam. Fraudsters employ this technique to create the illusion of contacting or messaging from the bank’s legitimate number by overwriting it.
For five consecutive days, the hackers contacted Madison to request a transfer of approximately $50,000. They also sent follow-up text messages in the same conversation. They transferred nearly $250,000 from the couple’s account until Suncorp froze it.
Madison contacted the bank to inquire about their frozen account. She was shocked to learn that she had been scammed and the money had been transferred to a Commonwealth Bank account.
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