With the development of the Internet, scammers continuously upgrade their fraudulent methods, making it increasingly difficult for people to prevent and detect. A retired bank employee in Australia became a victim of a scam. He shared his experience of being deceived, hoping to raise awareness among others.
According to the Australian media news.com.au, 79-year-old Peter Cook, who worked in the banking industry for 28 years and is now a retiree, fell into a scam and lost 5000 Australian dollars, leaving him regretful about his loss.
Cook, from Adelaide, Australia, said that in March of this year, his internet was very slow. His telecommunication provider Optus informed him they would investigate the issue.
Shortly after, he received a call from a woman claiming to be an Optus employee. In reality, the person was a scammer. The fraudster then claimed they were transferring the call to a technician. Cook mentioned that the “technician” had an Asian accent.
The so-called technician persuaded him to download an application called AnyDesk under the guise of fixing his internet issue. In reality, the application allowed scammers to remotely access his phone.
Recalling the incident, Cook mentioned that the person made a simple request that “surprised me, he ‘asked me to ensure that the phone screen was facing down’.”
This simple request from the scammer turned out to be fatal for Cook. As he couldn’t see the phone screen, the scammer was able to freely access his bank account until he realized what had happened.
“I checked my account and there was no money left,” he said.
Cook promptly informed his bank, but the money was already gone and couldn’t be recovered. He also reported the case to the authorities.
News.com.au reported that several others were also scammed out of tens of thousands of Australian dollars, with scammers falsely claiming to be fixing their slow NBN connection.
Another victim stated that in a similar scam, they were urged to turn off their phone.
From January to July, Scamwatch received 863 reports of Australians falling victim to NBN scams. Alarmingly, from January to September, Scamwatch received 5352 reports of remote access scams.
A spokesperson from the Australian National Anti-Scam Center said that in remote access scams, criminals pretend to be employees of well-known banks, internet companies, telephone companies, software, or network security companies. They call you and falsely claim that your account, phone, or computer has an issue. They instruct you to download screen sharing software like Zoho, AnyDesk, or TeamViewer or an application to remotely control your computer or phone. When you download the software or application, they claim to need to “fix the problem,” allowing scammers to take full control of your device. In reality, they do not fix any issues because there was no problem to begin with. They ask you to provide your bank password or a one-time security code.
There have been multiple cases of scammers impersonating NBN technicians to carry out scams.
Not only in Australia but in other countries as well, online scams are rampant. A recent investigation found that many phone numbers used for fraud are highly deceptive. The US law enforcement recently charged five defendants for sending phishing messages to company employees nationwide, stealing company data and millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.
Two Chinese individuals conducted phishing scams in Illinois, USA, claiming to be US law enforcement officials and defrauding victims of tens of thousands of dollars. When they returned to the victim’s residence to take more cash, they were arrested on the spot by the Marion Police Department in southern Illinois on October 29 (detailed report: “Chinese Defrauded as US Enforcement Agency in Illinois Arrests Two”).