Kew police issue urgent phone scam warning and say elderly most at risk

A Boroondara retiree in their 80s has been conned out of their life savings after being duped in an elaborate phone scam. And they’re not the only victim of cold-calling crooks, with police revealing many others had lost tens of thousands of dollars each.

A Boroondara retiree aged in their 80s has been conned into handing over $75,000 to overseas con artists, prompting police to issue an urgent phone scam warning.

Kew detective Acting Senior Sergeant Brendan Pollock said con artists were well-versed in swindling their victims and it wasn’t uncommon for people to lose thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

He said he’d once seen a person fleeced a sum totalling six figures, and the older generation was most at risk of being cheated.

In one instance reported to Kew detectives on July 15, scammers — most likely calling from overseas — contacted the victim pretending to be their phone company, he said.

They told them their computer was hacked and they needed remote access to clean it.

Once they’d “cleaned” the computer, they told the victim they needed help to catch the hackers, and asked the victim to transfer them money via a Western Union bank account.

They sent the victim a digitally altered receipt purportedly showing money deposited into their account.

But because the receipt was a fake, he said the victim dipped into their own savings when they made the outgoing transfer.

Sadly it was rare for victims to have their money returned, he said, and many didn’t even realise they’d been tricked until they mentioned the phone call to family.

“We’ve got multiple victims with large amounts of money being lost,” Sen-Sgt Pollock said

It was important people treated all bank transfer requests from strangers with caution, as well as unsolicited calls from companies asking for remote access to a computer, he said.

Law enforcement agencies would also not ask for help catching crooks over the phone, he said.

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“It’s purely cold calling over and over again, and for every one thousand calls they get hung up on, they have one who answers,” Sen-Sgt Pollock said.

Australians have been duped out of more than $46 million so far this year according to the latest Scamwatch figures, with phone scams the most frequently reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.