Yahoo Finance NAB banker blocks Aussie from buying $100,000 new car after spotting ‘big issue’
NAB customer adviser Sara Parfett said things “didn’t add up” and she realised the customer was being scammed.
A Queensland woman has narrowly avoided being scammed out of her life savings. The “hard to detect” scam has already cost Aussies more than $16 million.
The woman visited the NAB Kingaroy branch earlier this month to transfer $100,000 to her local dealership to purchase a brand new car. What she didn’t realise was that the invoice had been intercepted by a scammer.
NAB customer adviser Sara Parfett, who was handling the transaction, asked the customer her “go-to” question: “Have you double-checked the details with the dealership?”
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When the customer responded that she hadn’t, Parfett said she looked at the invoice and started spotting more red flags and realised things “didn’t add up”.
“When I was looking at the email, I noticed that it didn’t look the same as what most of our dealership emails look like,” Parfett said.
“It had a couple of different ads put on there, it didn’t reference the type of vehicle she was buying, it just referenced the six-figure price and bank account details.”
She ended up calling the car dealership directly and was told the email had not been sent by them and the bank details were not correct.
“We both clued-on that this was a big issue,” she said.
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Parfett said the customer was “shocked” to find out the email she received was not real and was relieved the scam was detected before it was too late. She was eventually able to get the correct invoice details and pay for her new car.
Scam costs Aussies $16 million
Invoice scams, also known as payment redirection scams, are where scammers pose as genuine businesses that customers have recently dealt with, particularly those that deal with large transfers of cash like real estate agents, lawyers and construction companies.
The scammers send out fake invoices to customers with altered payment details, so the money ends up being transferred to the scammer.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said the scam was “hard to detect” because scammers will either hack into the email system of the business or impersonate the business’ email address by changing just one letter.
“If you receive an invoice via email, take the time to call the business on a number you have found yourself to confirm that the payment details are correct,” Lowe said.
Aussies reported losing $16.2 million to the scam last year. Despite the total number of reports decreasing by 28 per cent, the amount lost increased by 3 per cent.
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