Geelong deception crimes soar as Wallington woman loses $21,000

The woman handed her details to caller posing as a telco worker in a phishing scheme.

Police are appealing for public assistance to find this man after an 87-year-old woman was scammed out of nearly $21,000.

An elderly woman from Wallington was fleeced of more than $20,000 in a telephone scam, with police warning Geelong region residents to be on guard against a growing number of fraudsters.

The call for vigilance comes as reports of deception have increased by more than 600 per cent in Geelong over the past decade.

On Tuesday, police reached out to the community for help after the 87-year-old Wallington woman was caught in a targeted phishing scam.

A Victoria police spokeswoman said the woman had received a phone call on September 25 last year from a person saying they were from a telecommunications company

“The scam caller requested the victim’s banking details over the phone and she was then advised to leave her bank cards in a letterbox to be reissued at a later date,” the spokeswoman said.

The woman’s cards were then stolen from her letterbox and used at a range of electrical goods stores later that afternoon.

Police released an image of a man they believe could help with their investigation.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

It hasn’t taken scammers long to target Geelong residents this year. On January 11, the City of Geelong Geelong warned against phony “council surveys” that had been reported in the region.

The city said in a Facebook post that it had been made aware several residents had received what appeared to be scam calls, with callers posing as council staff conducting a survey.

The council said that while it did conduct quarterly phone surveys asking for age and gender, it would never request a resident’s name, income or address.

According to the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA), there were 564 victim reports of deception in Geelong in 2024.

The number is a slight decrease from 676 in 2023, but significantly more than the 238 in 2022. The numbers have climbed steadily over the decade with just 73 reported in 2015.

According to SacmWatch data, there were 24,455 reports of phishing scams in Victoria in 2024, with more than $6,500,000 lost in total.

Phishing scams include attempts by scammers to trick someone into giving out personal information such as bank account details, passwords or credit card numbers.

Report a suspected scam call or learn about scam warning signs at scamwatch.gov.au.

Originally published as Geelong deception crimes soar as Wallington woman loses $21,000