Three billion dollars was lost to scams in Australia last year, but the big numbers mask the devastating financial and psychological effect scams have on the victim. Angela Fitzwater was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars not once, but twice this year. But it's the response of her bank - Bendigo bank - that she says has compounded her distress.
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TVTranscript
00:00 In January, Angela Fitzwater got a WhatsApp message from her son, Alex.
00:06 Or so she thought.
00:07 A classic "Hi Mum, I've smashed my phone, but you can't ring me. Can you help me out?
00:14 I need to pay a bill today for $3,000. So can you do that for me?
00:19 And as soon as I get back into my account, I'll repay you."
00:22 I said, "Yeah, no problem."
00:24 The scammer was convincing. Angela transferred $10,000 before she twigged and immediately called her bank.
00:32 "Welcome to Bendigo Bank. How can I help today?"
00:35 She tells them she's just been scammed and wants the payment stopped.
00:40 She's put on hold for the fraud department.
00:43 "I do apologise. I couldn't get through to anyone.
00:46 However, I've been filing for it, so advising of these transactions to our fraud team.
00:52 And these transactions will certainly be investigated. Can't promise a return."
00:58 That was despite the fraudsters account also being with Bendigo.
01:03 Over the following weeks, Angela repeatedly contacted her bank.
01:08 "I heard nothing from the fraud department. I rang about four times.
01:12 I wrote an email to the phishing department at Bendigo Bank.
01:19 That was about two or three days ago. And I still have absolutely nothing. I'm just wondering why."
01:26 "OK, I'm not really sure of the reason as to that."
01:29 "The fact that she had to make so many calls and she was the one suggesting what the bank could do
01:37 and looking for ways for the bank to get in touch.
01:40 It just showed me that the bank had no framework or protocol around how to deal with this stuff."
01:46 Angela made 12 calls in total and sent several emails.
01:51 Call logs suggest the bank called her back once.
01:55 She'd lost her husband not long before and had also just received a cancer diagnosis.
02:00 She became depressed.
02:02 "So over three months later, I got the sort of standard letter.
02:06 'I'm so sorry, this has happened to you. The bank holds no liability whatsoever
02:12 because you authorised the payments.'
02:15 Then in June, the scammers struck again.
02:18 They pretended to be from the fraud department she'd been hoping would help her.
02:23 Angela was tricked into giving out her security details.
02:26 The scammers transferred $40,000 from her savings to her transaction account,
02:31 then bought $16,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
02:36 But the bank didn't alert Angela.
02:38 She only found out when her card was declined at the shop.
02:42 "We were told $40,000 had just been stolen and no further information around
02:46 crypto transactions or anything was given to us at that time."
02:53 Bendigo Bank has refunded Angela around half of the fraudulent crypto transactions.
02:59 She's still waiting to find out about the other half.
03:02 It didn't refund her the $10,000 lost in the 'Hi Mum' scam.
03:06 "Most mornings I'd say, 'How did you sleep Mum?'
03:08 And she'd say, 'I didn't get sleep till four.'
03:11 Just lying awake thinking, 'What can I do? How can I get it back?'
03:15 And just a kind of loss of trust and faith in the world in general,
03:20 especially as the process went on and on and on and dragged on and on."
03:24 So how would you characterise the Bendigo Bank's response?
03:28 "Lax. I mean, negligent, I feel."
03:32 "Well, I think the bottom line is that they just don't care."
03:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]