A bank is now refusing to reimburse a senior $32K in stolen funds from what began through a text message scam.
Lyn Read, 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.
She says she’s a victim of a scammer who stole about $50,000 AUD – worth about $32,000 USD – from her bank account, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“Mrs. Read was relying on that money to enjoy the remainder of her days with her seven children and 13 grandchildren, and to do something that is important to her — to pay for her own funeral”, says ABC AU.
The bank teller managed to stop the scammer’s final attempted transfer of $3000 (AUD), but by then Mrs. Read had already had $50,000 (AUD) stolen from her account.
Nine months on, Mrs Read is still fighting Bendigo Bank for reimbursement.
Mrs Read argues the bank should have acted faster to stop the money being transferred out of the scammer’s two accounts, which were also with Bendigo Bank, and that the bank’s systems should have picked up the highly unusual activity on her accounts.
“They were large sums of money and it was quite out of the ordinary for me,” she said.
Bendigo Bank argues that because Mrs. Read gave her one-time six-digit internet banking passcode to the scammer, the loss is her responsibility.
The ACCC’s Scamwatch received 14,603 reports of bank impersonation scams in 2022, resulting in more than $20 million in losses.
“We are incredibly concerned about bank impersonation scams because they can be so convincing, they are very hard to detect,” ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.
Also Read: The US Treasury Direct is Now Freezing Customer Accounts
Other Bank News Today
Families are now getting their bank accounts frozen by a US bank according to a new report from a user in distress.
Eric Begley says his family of four are being affected by Credit Karma’s bank partner, MVB bank and are on the brink of being evicted.
Payroll has been frozen and the family is working with local state reps to look into the problem.
“Our family with 2 children are being evicted Monday so please everyone pray for our family that this gets resolved for us asap.
C.K. is purposely holding up these simple routing numbers & now my family’s lives are suffering.”
The family says they have a 4-year old and a 15-year old who have no idea what’s happening.
But Eric and his family aren’t the only ones being affected by fraudulent activity and frozen bank accounts.
They reached out to FrankNez after a report was published on Green Dot Bank denying customers access to money.
A Green Dot Bank user says their family was almost evicted after the bank froze their account on ‘fraudulent charges’ and cancelled their card.
“After I had fraudulent charges on my account they cancelled my card and were supposed to resend one. This happened August 5 2023. I finally got a working card September 14 2023.
Was almost evicted, with my 2 children, missed countless bill payments and multiple days of work because I had no gas for my car. I’m beyond disgusted and in the worst financial position in my life. No Christmas or birthdays for my kids this year. Again,” says one user.
Customers from bigger banks such as Wells Fargo are also beginning to experience something similar.
Also Read: Banks Are Now Closing Thousands of Accounts Daily
Market News Published Daily 📰
Don’t forget to opt-in for push notifications so you don’t miss a single article!
Also, thank you to all of our blog sponsors. This year we’ve been able to increase push notifications slots making it more convenient than ever for new readers to receive their daily market news and updates.
You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn for daily news and updates on your favorite stories.
Become a Sponsor for only $1/mo.
- Gain access to EXCLUSIVE FrankNez articles you won’t find here.
- Become part of a private and safe Discord community, just for retail investors.
- Get drawn at the end of the year for holiday giveaways.
Recommended For You ✨
About The Author
Leave your thoughts below.