Yahoo Finance Aussie loses $50,000 in 'sinister' Telstra, ANZ scam due to little-known loophole: 'I feel sick'
Hackers were able to get into Victoria McCann's accounts in just hours.
An Aussie race car driver has been scammed out of $50,000 after hackers used a little-known loophole to their advantage. There's a seemingly endless amount of ways scammers are stealing people's money and Veronica McCann couldn't believe it when her account was drained.
She came out of a meeting and had no phone reception, but eventually received an email from Telstra saying her number had been changed. Thinking it was a telco issue, the 40-year-old went along with the new number without much thought.
However, the hackers had exploited a domestic violence support initiative set up by Telstra to get her personal information.
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Posing as McCann, the hackers told Telstra they had just left an abusive relationship without a phone and the company provided them with the new number.
Once they got into her Telstra account with the newly approved phone number, they changed her voice ID to hack into her ANZ bank account and siphoned off $50,000.
She called her husband to get him to freeze their account, but it was too late.
The whole operation was completed in just two hours.
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"I literally thought it was a mobile phone issue. I didn't click that it was anything more sinister going on," she explained to 9News.
"Heart drops, feel sick for the rest of the day, physically feel sick."
She's now demanding answers about how her personal information was hacked and changed so easily without being contacted directly by Telstra or ANZ.
ANZ has agreed to refund the $50,000 and said the breach was "appalling" while Telstra believes McCann's hackers stole her identity "prior to any interaction" with the telco.
Telstra said the scammer was able to give all the necessary information about McCann's account when they were trying to access it.
How do I protect myself from scammers?
Aussies lost $2.7 billion to scams last year, with 601,000 cons reported to authorities, according to a new report from the Australian Anti Scam Centre.
That's down from a record $3.1 billion the year previous, however, the number of scams reported went up by 18.5 per cent. Over 65s were the hardest hit and only group to take a higher loss in the last year.
Investment scams are the most prolific, with $1.3 billion lost, followed by remote access scams ($256m) and romance scams ($201.1m).
Scamwatch warns to beware of the following scenarios:
It’s an amazing opportunity to make or save money
Someone you haven’t met needs your help - and money
The message contains links or attachments
You feel pressured to act quickly
They ask you to pay in an unusual or specific way
They ask you to set up new accounts or Pay ID
What should I do if I think I’ve been scammed?
Contact your bank and report the scam. Ask them to stop transactions and stop sending any money.
Report the scam to Scamwatch here and make an official complaint to police here.
Watch out for follow up scams, particularly ones promising they can get your money back. Scamwatch warned one in three victims of a scam are scammed more than once.
Lastly, get support for yourself. You can talk to a financial counsellor or reach out to BeyondBlue on 1300 22 4636 or here for an online chat or Lifeline for crisis support online here on 13 11 14.
You can also contact IDCARE to “reduce the harm they experience from the compromise and misuse of their identity information by providing effective response and mitigation”.
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