Scammers are emissaries of financial and emotional pain

Scamming. Like a noxious weed it chokes its victims, leaving them financially poorer – in some cases, destitute – and psychologically scarred.

It’s often assumed it’s the financially illiterate, the uneducated, the mentally frail and the elderly who are most likely to fall victim. Although there’s undoubtably an element of truth to that generalisation, it’s certainly not the full story.

Not unless you consider 74 elderly. Sylvie Leber (pictured), a close family friend, doesn’t fit any of these descriptions. A scientist by training who held government posts before retiring, she is mentally alert, socially active and fully engaged person enjoying her golden years.

Yet Sylvie fell foul to the dulcet tones of a team of scammers to the tune of $20,000. Under the guise of NBN Co, they persuaded Sylvie to provide them with remote access via the Anydesk app to her iPad and mobile phone where they then proceeded to withdraw over multiple transactions and, within the space of a couple of hours, all her personal savings. All this took place without Sylvie disclosing any of her passwords or PINs.

Fortunately, there was no attempt to access her superannuation that sat with another institution and where a considerable portion of her retirement capital resides. But for someone on a part pension, $20,000 is $20,000.

Unlike others, it will not leave Sylvie destitute. But that ignores the emotional cost. In this instance, Sylvie has been left feeling less confident, more vulnerable and even questioning her independence.

She has also discovered, to her vast disappointment, the limited avenues for recourse from financial institutions – and that’s a societal problem that government must address.

According to the Australian Banking Association, more than 90 per cent of Australian adults have experienced a scam or fraud in the past year to December 2023. Despite the vast amounts invested by the banks and other financial institutions in IT systems to help reduce the likelihood of scams, Australians continue to fall foul of these cyber criminals with $476.8 million being reported lost to scams in 2023.  

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) reports the top three scams relate to personal transaction accounts, credit cards and electronic banking. In 2022-23, AFCA saw a 46 per cent increase in scam-related complaints, a number that can only increase as growing numbers use digital banking.

So, what can be done to reduce the likelihood of being scammed? Make no mistake. As Sylvie discovered, they can be very convincing and hard to identify as they have become more sophisticated. The days of the Nigerian letter landing in our inbox that brought a smug smile to our face and an inward chuckle as we thought, “how could anyone be that stupid?” – they were – are long gone. Today, scammers use every trick in the book and then some.

But there are ways to better protect yourself. This check list is far from comprehensive but it’s a good starting point.

• Do not share personal information if you’re unsure of the identity of the person you are speaking to. If in doubt, don’t.
• Avoid situations where:
  • A deal may be too good to be true.
  • You receive a link or attachment from an unrecognisable source.
  • You are being pressured to make a decision or provide personal information. Just hang up.
• Consider whether a call, email or message may be fake. As an example, an email from a scammer may have an unusual email address. If they are calling from a recognised body (in this case, NBN Co), tell them you are going to hang up and contact them directly via the website contact information.
• Use a strong password and multi-factor authentication.
• Monitor your banking transactions and superannuation balances to identify any irregular activity.

If you do fall victim to a scam, there are steps you can take.

• Immediately contact your bank to report the scam and cease any further transactions taking place on your account.
• Ensure you update all login details across all devices.
• Make a note of the details of the scam. For example:
  • When they called.
  • The phone number used.
  • The company they claimed to be calling from.
  • What happened during the interaction and how you proceeded.
  • Report the scam to ReportCyber, a government website established to improve cyber security.
• Report any suspicious activity to Scamwatch, a body run by the National Anti-Scam Centre to gather scam reports.
• Lodge a scam complaint with the AFCA to have the matter reviewed and potentially be compensated for your loss.

Back to my family friend, she has since been offered a goodwill token of $5,000 by the bank as they continue to shrug off any responsibility. In fact, Sylvie was described as someone who acted with “extreme carelessness”, and the goodwill token (an oxymoron if ever I heard one) is a far cry from the $20,000 she lost from a bank she entrusted for many years. The matter is now with a case manager at AFCA, and hopefully she will get a ruling in her favour.

The good news is that Sylvie is getting her confidence back. Certainly, she’s not taking this lying down, having reported it to Scamwatch and ReportCyber, upgraded her iPad security and is now participating in an advertisement for the ACCC on the dangers of being scammed. It was a tough lesson for Sylvie to learn, but hopefully, from her tragic encounter, others will benefit.