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Woman, 89, loses $200,000 to telephone scammer

Amy Mitchell-Whittington
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An 89-year-old woman has lost more than $200,000 after she was involved in a telephone scam that has targeted several elderly Gold Coast residents.

The scam, which has targeted men and women from Bundall, Runaway Bay and Tallebudgera, begins with a phone call from a man who claims to be either a police officer, business manager or a fraud investigator from an Australian bank.

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Call scam takes life savings

Elderly Gold Coast residents are handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars to cold call scammers. Nine News

The man tells the victim that someone has tried to access their credit cards or bank account.

Several calls over the following days are made to the victim, convincing them that they are working with police and investigators to find those who attempted to steal their money.

The scam ends when a bogus bank fraud investigator calls and tells the victim to electronically transfer their funds into a United Kingdom account immediately.

Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Garrett said at least two men are involved, one with a British accent, in the scam that has managed to fleece victims of more than half a million dollars so far.

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"The impact of these offences is devastating, often it is their (the victim's) life savings, they are acting in good faith and believe they are following police instructions or banking institution's advice," he said.

"Once that occurs it is really difficult for us to recover their funds for them.

"It really is a disgusting offence committed on elderly, vulnerable people."

Gold Coast pensioner Owen Moore, 82, told Nine News he had been targeted after he was contacted by a Southport business to let him know a man named "Jason" had attempted to withdraw money from his bank account.

"They were saying don't tell anybody, don't tell the bank because it might compromise the investigation," Mr Moore said.

The scammers then told Mr Moore to transfer $103,000 to an overseas account, claiming he was helping police with their sting.

"They kept saying it's safe, you'll get your money back, even the transfer fee of $32," he said.

Senior Sergeant Garrett said the scammers were targeting the "most vulnerable people" in the Gold Coast community, with the victims all aged in their 70s or 80s.

"So far we have seven occurrences of this scam on the Gold Coast, with the first reported incident occurring on October 17 at Bundall where an 84-year-old woman lost $84,000," he said.

"Five elderly Runaway Bay victims and one at Tallebudgera were also targeted."

Senior Sergeant Garrett said local police were working with the Australian Federal Police, who have liaisons based in London, as well as banking institutions to try and recover what funds they can and urged anyone who has elderly relatives or friends to make them aware of the scam.

"I would call on anyone who has elderly relatives or family members to bring their attention to this issue and a bit of heightened awareness," he said.

"We call on people to be very vigilant about receiving any phone calls from anyone talking about financial affairs.

"It is always best to go down to your local branch and clarify any issues you have there."

If you or anyone that you know has been a victim of this scam please report the incident through ACORN, the Australian Cyber-crime Online Reporting Network https://www.acorn.gov.au/

For more information on current scams visit ScamWatch: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/

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