Australians reported a record 601,000 of scams in 2023. Ahead of Scams Awareness Week, running from 26 - 30 August, ANZ has provided info on the sophisticated financial scams cutting a swathe through our communities. Vision courtesy: ANZ
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NewsTranscript
00:00There's absolutely been a rise in the scams, even in regional communities.
00:06It's, I feel sorry for them, I just, I feel awful.
00:10I think of my own loved ones and my own family members, my sister or my nephew had this happen.
00:17Every customer, it's my job to protect them, protect their money, make sure they're not
00:21giving it to someone they don't know.
00:24My name's Cameron Reid, I'm a banking consultant in Sunbury, Victoria.
00:29Hi, I'm Jeanette and I work at Biribi Plaza.
00:33The way we as banking consultants would be aware of scams is, it's not so much factual,
00:39it's more of the customer's behaviour, or they'll be nervous, agitated, or they'll be
00:43trying to rush a transaction.
00:46It's essentially like you're in an abusive relationship, so they'll try and isolate you
00:49from family and friends because they don't want you to discuss what you're doing with
00:52anyone else.
00:53I've had a customer and she said she had a boyfriend that she'd met through social media
00:59and he needed to actually go into her internet banking so he could fly to meet her in Australia.
01:05She was nervous, she was fidgety, and she was rushing me, just saying, I just need,
01:10I just need.
01:11And the phone calls were coming in from this boyfriend during this conversation, saying,
01:17have you got it yet, have you got it yet?
01:19I said to her, have you physically met this man?
01:21And she said no.
01:22And I said, I don't believe this man is in New Zealand.
01:26She started crying and she laid her hand close to mine, so I just held her hand and
01:31said we will help.
01:33They'll work on people for a long time so that the customer actually trusts the scammer
01:38more than they trust the bank when the bank is asking questions because they're trying
01:42to protect you.
01:43I first asked him how much he wanted to send, so he's like 20k.
01:46He said, oh, the person on the phone said to me that a truck's going to come to my address
01:52and give me 300k.
01:54I said, what government body would do that?
01:57He goes, I've spoken to my friends on Facebook, they did the same thing, they received the
02:01money and I knew straight away that obviously his Facebook's been hacked.
02:07And I said, do you realise that it's not your friends that are talking to you?
02:10This could be anybody and you're not going to get your money back.
02:14I think that's when it clicked.
02:16So it can be very hard to persuade someone they're in a scam, because understandably,
02:20they don't want to believe it.
02:22Sometimes customers will go, no, I've had enough, they'll close their accounts and they'll
02:27open up at a different bank and try again.
02:30They target all different age groups, but especially older people because they tend
02:35to have more savings.
02:36We did have an elderly gentleman who came to make an urgent deposit because he had an
02:42opportunity to buy real estate that he felt was too good to miss out on.
02:47I said, with the contract of sale, he didn't have any of that.
02:51He had a screwed up piece of paper that looked like a napkin with some numbers written on it.
02:56They will always pressure you to act quickly.
02:57They don't want you to take your time to stop and think.
03:01One that we're seeing recently, they actually send people round to your house to collect
03:04your credit card or cash from you and people will leave it in their letterbox.
03:08The fact that the scammer was able to arrange an Uber to go to the customer's address to
03:14pick up $5,000 cash tells me that the scammers could be in the next suburb or the next street.
03:19They could be someone you went to school with, someone at your footy club.
03:23They are the scammers.
03:26Our role is to educate and prevent as much as possible.