Toowoomba retirees become victims of professional banking scam, money recovered by Bank of Queensland

A retired couple has opened up on their harrowing experience after they were targeted in a disturbing scam which involved them transferring $146,000.

For almost three decades Thomas and Anita Jacobsen worked tirelessly operating their own business, so the retired couple were left devastated when they became victims of a callous scam which set out to cost them $146,000 of their hard-earned savings.

Aged in their 80s, the self-funded retirees were searching for a more competitive term deposit rate ahead of its renewal and began researching online.

Mr Jacobsen then received a phone call from a man with a British accent who said he was representing a well-known Australian bank.

Self-funded retirees Thomas and Anita Jacobsen fell victim to a financial scam. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Offering a modest four per cent rate for six months, the Toowoomba retiree agreed and was told a bank colleague would be in touch in the coming days.

After speaking with both men who were posing as bank representatives, Mr Jacobsen received documents with the bank’s masthead, which he filled out with his personal information, before transferring $146,000 to the account provided.

Two days later, he received a call from the Bank of Queensland’s Financial Crimes Team who advised Mr Jacobsen had fallen victim to a scam.

“We were devastated. Completely devastated. I told Anita, but I could not tell our family – our children – for over a week because I felt so ashamed,” he said.

“I considered myself to be reasonably aware when doing business transactions and I just feel sorry for anyone else who has been caught up in this.

“Our working days are over, we’ve worked hard for this money, paid tax on it, it’s all self-funded and we were told we had no chance of recovering it.”

BOQ customer advocate Ben Griffin helped customers Thomas and Anita Jacobsen after they were victims of a financial scam. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Miraculously Bank of Queensland worked alongside the other bank involved and law enforcement and managed to return the money to the Jacobsens – a rare result in most scamming situations.

Bank of Queensland customer advocate Ben Griffin said when the financial crimes area flagged the transaction as potentially suspicious, they were able to place the funds on hold.

“This was critical in being able to have these funds returned, but unfortunately having funds returned is not the case for many people,” Mr Griffin said.

“In most cases when the money leaves your account it can be very difficult to recover and it’s very common for scammers to transfer funds offshore into crypto currency, which makes it virtually impossible to recover those funds.”

Mr Griffin said the banking industry had witnessed an increase in scam activity with the Jacobsens falling victim to a very sophisticated case of fraud.

Just last month a couple from Enoggera lost nearly $80,000 as a result of a similar scam.

“If it sounds too good to be true it often is however, in Mr and Mrs Jacobsen’s circumstances they were offered a very modest rate of four per cent – what some banks are genuinely offering term deposit customers,” Mr Griffin said.

“They weren’t being greedy, weren’t being sucked into some obvious scam – it was a very professional and polished investment scam.

“We’ve seen the documents Mr and Mrs Jacobsen were sent and they were very polished and professional documents.”

Mr Jacobsen said more public awareness was needed to help others avoid scams.

“We are one of the very, very lucky few to get all our money back and we are eternally thankful for that,” Mr Jacobsen said.

“Our generation don’t have the skills that the young people have so retirees or anyone wishing to invest have to be extremely vigilant.

“It’s the people who built this country that are the ones getting hurt and it’s tragic. We’ve just been used.”

Mr Griffin urged anyone instructed to transfer money to speak to someone they trusted, call the number of the institution listed on the company website and contact their current bank to verify the offer is legitimate beforehand.

Signs to look out for may include unsolicited contact, a sense of urgency, information supplied which differs from the company website, spelling errors, typographical errors or incoherent sentences.

If you are a victim of a scam, please visit the ACCC, ID Care and ScamWatch websites.