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An elderly couple who was scammed out of $249,000 is taking the fight to Bendigo Bank, which was unable to stop the money being transferred to cyber criminals.
The scam saw cyber criminals pose as fake Microsoft employees, who tricked Edward and Joan Adams into granting them access to a loan account the couple say hasn’t been used for two years.
While the police are currently working to find the scammers, the couple has now challenged Bendigo Bank after it was unable to stop the transaction.
Via remote access to the couple’s computer, the hackers attempted to access all of their accounts, some of which were held with other banks. Where NAB and HSBC shut down the attempted withdrawals, Bendigo Bank allowed them, only freezing it four days later.
“It went over three days. They took out 11 withdrawals until it got to $249,000,” said Mrs Adams.
“If we’d been with [NAB or HSBC] we might not have lost a cent,” added Mr Adams.
“I’m afraid they’re useless; they’ve cost me a quarter of a million dollars.
“Admittedly I made a mistake, I let those people in, but there was no fallback at the other end.
“Every other bank stops that. It was an enormous amount of money.”
Mr Adams said that the transactions should have been blocked by Bendigo Bank, to which the Bank responded, “generally a bank does not have an obligation to monitor transactions on its customers’ behalf and reimburse a customer for authorised payments to a third party”.
Making matters worse, Bendigo Bank is charging the couple interest on the $249,000 taken from the loan account.
“To charge you interest on that money, that’s really kicking it in your face,” said Mr Adams.
At this stage, the couple has no option but to begin paying the massive stolen amount and interest back. They wish to warn others of the risk of cyber crime and scams.
“They’ve got me, they’re going to get other people,” said Mr Adams.
“If you can make a quarter of a million dollars in three days, you’d say this is the best job I’ve had in my life.”
When reached out to comment, Bendigo Bank issued a statement, revealing that it had attempted to recover the money but was unable to do so.
“The receiving financial institution subsequently advised that it has not been able to recover the funds.
“As the matter is before the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, it would be inappropriate to comment further while this independent review is ongoing.”
Bendigo Bank maintains that it “takes cyber security very seriously”.
“The Bank’s security staff remain vigilant and work closely with Australian cyber security agencies, intelligence and technology partners to detect any malicious or abnormal behaviour.”
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