Scammers financially devastate Aussie family in space of eight minutes

They went to bed believing they had saved their money. Instead, the scammers had all the time they needed.

A Queensland family who lost $150,000 to scammers because of a bank screw-up were left paying interest on the stolen funds meaning their bank profited from the scam.

“It’s basically racketeering,” Charlie*, 50, told news.com.au.

Charlie received a call from his elderly parents at the beginning of 2024 and rushed over to their Gold Coast home.

The truck driver learned that his dad had been coaxed into downloading malware on to his computer and now feared that fraudsters had access to his parents’ bank account.

His parents immediately disconnected their computer once they realised what had happened and Charlie’s mum rang the bank asking for their accounts to be frozen.

The bank employee checked his mother’s main savings account and assured her there had been no transactions.

“I don’t know if she’s stupid, or she’s inexperienced, or she’s not trained properly,” Charlie lamented.

Because what this bank staffer had failed to do was check or freeze their loan account – allowing the criminals to siphon out $150,000, he said.

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The family, from the Gold Coast (pictured), were left financially ruined from the scam. Picture: Darran Franks

With the bank assuring the couple that their money was safe, the Gold Coast family focused on protecting their superannuation account, which was with another financial institution.

Sure that they had averted a crisis, the couple and their son relaxed and went to sleep.

But the next day, “something didn’t sit right” and Charlie felt a desperate need to contact the bank as he had a gut feeling his parents’ money was in danger.

By now, it was a weekend, so he did a quick Google search to find which bank branch might be open and found one nearby.

When he got there, he was alarmed. He uncovered the family were meant to lodge a report with the bank’s financial crime division but were never told that and were only finding out now.

That was when he realised the bank “hadn’t done anything” the day before to stop the scammers.

Overnight, the scammers had targeted his parents’ line of credit and managed to make several devastating transfers in the space of just eight minutes.

“By this stage the money is well and truly gone because they failed to do anything,” Charlie said.

“The manager kept giving us the run-around saying ‘this thing happens all the time’.”

The family found little comfort in knowing that others were also going through their plight – and they were left paying interest on the $150,000 plundered credit.

Their bank continued to charge them 6.9 per cent interest on the stolen amount, even though it was under dispute.

They engaged a lawyer to fight for their money.

What followed was months of back and forth as they battled the bank for their money.

At first, the bank dug their heels in and said they wouldn’t pay any compensation as the fault lay squarely with Charlie’s dad.

Shockingly, the bank told them that they had called outside of business hours so they couldn’t be expected to freeze the accounts. Charlie said he called just after 4pm.

His parents were also blamed for having a $10 million spending limit on their account – something which made no sense, Charlie said, but they were unable to disprove this claim.

Charlie then hired a lawyer who sent legal letters. To date, the bank have not responded to a single one.

The truckie’s parents ended up taking the case to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) where they reached a confidential settlement.

Charlie wanted to remain anonymous as his parents have signed a non disparagement clause.

He believes part of the reason the bank came around was because his lawyer meticulously went through AFCA rulings and was able to find a case where the customers had received a full refund.

He believes this might have incentivised the bank to reach an agreement.

*Name withheld over privacy reasons

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