Bendigo Bank blames Danny McIver after he lost $70k to scammers

Tragedy has struck one Victorian family far too many times. But another heartbreaking blow has left this grandfather in tears daily.

When the bank phoned Danny McIver after four transactions had already drained his bank account of most of his life savings, little did he know his nightmare had only just begun.

The Vietnam War veteran has been left in tears regularly as the money came from a life insurance payout after his son died by suicide – with his grandson generously gifting a large part of the lump sum to help the family out.

“Its given me terrible nightmares,” Mr McIver told news.com.au. “It even hurts more to think the money he has given me has gone.”

Tragically, his son’s death came just weeks after he lost his daughter to motor neurone disease.

In September last year, Mr McIver was on his computer and a message flashed up from Microsoft warning he had been hacked. It urged him to call a number provided.

In reality, scammers were impersonating the tech giant.

Mr McIver is lending his support to news.com.au’s campaign People Before Profit, calling on the federal government to make it mandatory for banks to compensate scam victims – just like in the UK.

In October last year, the UK introduced world-leading legislation making compensation mandatory for scam victims within five business days unless in cases of gross negligence.

IT’S TIME BANKS PUT PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT. SIGN THE PETITION

Mr McIver had no idea the damage that was about to be inflicted on him as a result of a booming scam industry.

Hard of hearing from his war time experience, Mr McIver enlisted his granddaughter to help the hackers to download what she thought was antivirus software but in fact gave them remote access to his computer.

The scammers then moved most of his life savings out of the Bendigo Bank account, transferring out $9900 in each of three transactions totalling almost $30,000 where new payees were added and also a $40,000 payment made via BPAY.

Bendigo Bank did stop one transaction worth $18,000 but has not recovered any of the $70,000 taken, Mr McIver said.

He’s been left “terribly disappointed” that Bendigo Bank has blamed him for the scam and refused to reimburse any of the money.

The Victorian man said he had never made a transfer as large as $40,000 and was also critical that his money could be moved out immediately.

“I just can’t believe that Bendigo (Bank) took nearly two hours to discover that funds were being taken out of my bank four times. I thought the flags would have been raised very, very early,” he added

The experience has left him feeling “awful”.

“The bank is making us feel sick. I hate it,” he said in tears. “I would like to make the people aware that this could happen to anyone and most probably is.”

Mr McIver said the experience was another tragic blow after both his children died and his wife Helen — his high school sweetheart who he reconnected with 11 years ago – lost her entire family in a car accident in Queensland.

“Death has been a constant on our doorstep. It’s so sad … I’ve just had a kidney out and now I’ve got a heart problem and they give me a couple of years to live,” he said.

“I dream every day that somebody is going to ring me and say ‘Your money is put back in the bank’.”

Scam victim Danny McIver with IT expert Jeremy Thomas who is helping him out to try and recover his life savings from the bank. Picture: Media Mode/news.com.au

He is pursuing a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority with assistance from IT expert Jeremy Thomas, who initially helped Mr McIver to clear his computer of the offending software.

Mr Thomas uncovered the sophisticated measures the scammers used to ensure the scam would not be picked up in real time.

Mr Thomas said Bendigo Bank described Mr McIver’s conduct as extreme carelessness, which led to the breach – but he had “no idea what was happening”.

“The bank said he knowingly has given codes to an unauthorised party, which isn’t true,” Mr Thomas said.

Mr Thomas uncovered scammers had used sophisticated methods to trick Mr McIver, including muting the messages on his phone and opening up a second screen on his computer that couldn’t be seen from Mr McIver’s end.

“The scammers were mucking around on the first window but they were in the second internet window looking for saved banking logins and password and my client had no idea,” Mr Thomas said.

He is critical that banks rely on one time passcodes sent to mobile phones as a key security feature.

“Messages sent to a mobile phone isn’t the most adequate protection as it can be intercepted and it isn’t an infallible system,” he said.

“But the bank are saying they are not compelled to do any more to have in place in terms of security.”

The fact the scammers were able to add new payees and transfer large amounts was troubling, Mr Thomas said, as well as the money being able to leave the account immediately with “no checks and balances”.

“This is one of those things according to legislation the bank has done nothing wrong,” he said.

“In Danny’s case, we are still trying to argue the fact he was blindsided by this and it’s the lack of any other controls that the bank have that has seen the money leave the account.

“It’s just pathetic. It’s not really that hard to scam an Australian out of their money electronically

“It’s a problem that is affecting a lot of Australians, but there is a lot of stigma and reported losses aren’t an actual indication of what is being lost in the economy.”

Danny and Helen McIver have experienced huge tragedies in life and the scam is another huge blow. Mr McIver wanted to see the money look after his family as his health suffers. Picture: Media Mode/news.com.au

The push for Australians to bank online means customers are “held to ransom” to the security systems they have in place even if they are inadequate, Mr Thomas argued.

“Positive change needs to come from the federal government as the amount of money that is going out of the economy – it would be in the national interest to stop it,” he said.

He claimed Australian banks’ security technology was “lax” despite the billions they make.

A Bendigo Bank spokesperson said they do not comment on specific customer matters.   

“Bendigo Bank takes cyber security very seriously, protecting our customers and safeguarding our systems with a variety of cybercrime prevention methods,” they said.    

It is important customers take steps to protect themselves and do not share their passwords or allow someone they don’t know or trust to log in to their computer remotely, as it is extremely difficult to recover money that has been transferred to scammers, they added.

“Bendigo Bank attempts to recover funds lost to scams wherever possible and it goes without saying when the bank is at fault, we will reimburse customers for the loss of funds,” they noted.   

In the financial year ending 30 June 2024, the bank stopped $34.4 million in fraudulent transactions and added more than 400 phone and fax numbers to its telco provider’s “do not originate” list that will prevent scammers from impersonating its people, they added.

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