‘Taking the mick’: Tradie furious at bank’s refund after losing $17,000 to scammers

A hardworking tradie has been left shocked and horrified over his bank’s response after he lost almost $17,000.

A tradie who lost $17,000 in an elaborate spoofing scam has been left feeling mocked after receiving a letter from his bank.

Bradley Turner runs a micro cementing company called Pure Deco, and he is still reeling from falling victim to a scam in June of this year.

The 33-year-old lost almost $17,000 after transferring money because a scammer hacked into an established text chain he had with ANZ, making him believe he needed to move his money to avoid his account being drained.

The tradie has maintained that the bank needs to reimburse the money because the hacker was able to infiltrate the text chain he had with the bank.

Mr Turner claimed that ANZ initially closed the case without offering to return any of the funds but, after he complained, agreed to re-open the case.

He has now been left furious once more after receiving a letter from ANZ, which news.com.au has seen, revealing the low amount the bank was able to recover.

“$1.86 has been recovered as a result of the process and we’ve credited this amount to the relevant accounts,” the letter read.

The letter did not explain how ANZ came to $1.86 figure, or why the bank could recover this amount but not the almost $17,000 that was lost.

News.com.au understands that the returned sum was what the recipient bank was able to recover following ANZ’s request

Bradley Turner thought he was being hacked and was trying to save his money. Picture: Supplied

These were the text messages that made the tradie panic. Picture: Supplied

The letter also claimed that, while Mr Turner is a “valued customer”, the bank would not be reimbursing him further.

“There are no other steps ANZ is able to take to try and recover these funds. While you’re a valued customer we will not be making a payment to you for the remainder of your loss in these circumstances.”

An ANZ spokesperson told news.com.au that the bank is “unable to comment on individual customers” but that scams are am “insidious” problem.

“This matter is currently being reviewed by Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and we continue to actively engage with AFCA during this process,” the spokesperson said.

“Scams are an insidious problem which impact the entire community. The ways in which criminal syndicates are scamming and defrauding customers is constantly evolving, and scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated.”

The spokesperson added that “we always attempt to recover funds customers have lost to scams or fraud” but it isn’t always possible.

“However, the ability to recover funds depends on a number of factors including whether they are transferred to another financial institution, how quickly it is reported to us and the speed in which funds are then on-transferred by scammers.”

ANZ said that scams are an “insidious” problem. Picture: iStock.

Mr Turner told news.com.au that hearing he was getting less than $2 back after waiting for months for a final response was devastating.

“I felt horrendous, like they’re taking the mick,” he said.

“I’ve been waiting for that money, and then they tell me, I can get $1.86? It is like they’re throwing it in my face.”

Mr Turner said it is “annoying” and he is frustrated that the bank is claiming it is a telecom issue, because he feels it is the bank’s responsibility to ensure their texting streams cannot be hacked into.

The tradie maintains that he never would have fallen for the scam if it weren’t for the fact that the messages appeared in an established text chain he had with ANZ.

“(The scammers) are putting you in a position where you believe it is ANZ,” he said.

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and can now use state-of-the-art technology to ‘spoof’ numbers and get into established texting threads.

Mr Turner fell for the scam and lost almost $17k. Picture: iStock

Mr Turner ended up in this mess because he received a text that appeared to be from ANZ, which he believed to be legitimate because it appeared in an already-established message chain.

The message alerted him that his voice ID had been updated and that if he didn’t request this change, he should contact the number provided immediately.

The 33-year-old panicked because he hadn’t updated any verifications with the bank and it was for his business account.

The tradie insisted he never would have rung the number if he had just received a text message from a random number, but because it appeared to be from ANZ on his phone and was alongside other official messages, he fell for it.

Mr Turner called the number and was instructed by the scammers, whom he believed were ANZ staff, to transfer lump sums into a new secure account because he was being hacked.

Mr Turner transferred two separate payments, one totalling $16,941 and another payment of around $7000, to a new bank account.

After his panic subsided and he hung up from the phone call, it occurred to him that it may have been an elaborate scam.

He contacted ANZ only an hour and a half after making the transfers, but it was already mostly too late.

ANZ was able to stop the $7000 transfer, but the almost $17,000 sum was already with another bank.

He said that he feels like the bank is ‘taking the mick’ at this point. Picture: Supplied

He can’t believe he got less than $2 back. Picture: iStock

When news.com.au originally covered Mr Turner’s scam horror, ANZ said in a statement that the bank always tries to recover funds.

“However, the ability to recover funds depends on a number of factors including how quickly it is reported to us, whether they are transferred to another financial institution, and the speed in which funds are then on-transferred by scammers,” the bank said.

“In many instances, cyber criminals on-transfer funds within minutes, or use them to purchase cryptocurrency.”

ANZ said it works with telecommunications companies on measures that stop scammers from adopting the ‘ANZ’ label in text messages.

This includes “reporting instances where ANZ has been impersonated for telcos to block and prevent these attempts”.

“ANZ has several measures in place to help detect and protect our customers from fraud and scams and we are continually reviewing and adjusting our capabilities as new fraud and scams emerge and criminals change how they operate,” the bank said.

“A genuine ANZ call, email or text will never ask you to share sensitive details such as passwords and pins, click a link to log into your account, grant remote access to your device, transfer money to another account to keep it safe or join an online chat with an ANZ member.”

Mr Turner isn’t alone in his experience.

Furkan Colak also lost funds in a similar scam. Picture: Supplied

In February, news.com.au reported an eerily similar story about another Aussie tradie who lost $58,000 in a spoofing scam.

Furkan Colak, from Melbourne, was in the process of trying to buy a house while also saving up for his dad’s knee surgery when he received a text message that looked to be from ANZ but was actually from a scammer.

Mr Colak previously told news.com.au that the whole experience left him “shaking” and it has been tough to get over losing so much money.

“It comes to the point where you’re almost over it and then you think what you could have done with the money,” he said

Originally published as ‘Taking the mick’: Tradie furious at bank’s refund after losing $17,000 to scammers