A young woman lost nearly $35,000 after falling victim to an elaborate scam that started as a seemingly innocent warning telling her she’d been charged twice for her Netflix account.
Rachel De Candia, 28, received an email she thought was legitimate in October telling her she’d been charged twice for the streaming service.
She replied with her bank details, as requested, thinking she’d be issued a refund.
A week later she received a call from an anonymous person claiming to be from NAB’s fraud and security team informing her that her bank cards and accounts had been compromised.
Rachel De Candia, 28, was scammed out of nearly $35,000 from people pretending to be from her banks
‘They said my whole account had been compromised and I needed to transfer my money out. They also said my cards had been copied at some point so I had to send them off for forensics,’ Ms De Candia told Yahoo News.
The 28-year-old transferred $6,040 via PayID into an account she believed had been set up by the bank.
Later that day, an Uber arrived at Ms De Candia’s home with a demand that she hand over her ‘compromised’ NAB and Westpac debit cards.
While admitting the situation was ‘weird’, the woman said she was so panicked that she handed over her cards in the hope that it would be the end of her nightmare.
But it was only just the start of the ordeal, as the scammers went on a shopping spree with her cards, visiting ATMs to withdraw cash before splurging in Officeworks, Kmart and Coles.
They spent almost $29,000 and because Ms De Candia had already transferred the $6,000, in total she lost close to $35,000, which she had been saving towards a house deposit.
She had applied for a home loan prior to being scammed.
Those plans have been put on hold as she tries desperately to recover her savings.
‘A lot of the things they bought were Apple gift cards, Apple iPhones, as well as cash from the ATMs. I was told by police they convert this into cryptocurrency and it can’t be traced,’ she said.
She didn’t realise her mistake until speaking to her partner later that evening before immediately reporting the matter to her banks and police.
Ms De Candia, 28, received an email she thought was legitimate in October telling her she’d been charged twice for her Netflix account
Police have arrested a scammer who was allegedly involved.
NAB managed to salvage $5,000 to be returned to Ms De Candia but due to ongoing court matters, the rest has not yet been recovered.
‘It’s my life savings. It’s not like I can earn that money back within a certain amount of time. To have this amount of money gone is catastrophic,’ she said.
Both banks issued warnings to Aussies about scammers.
Westpac said it would never ask customers to transfer money into other accounts to keep it safe or ask them to hand over their cards or PINs.
NAB said it would never ask customers to confirm, update or disclose personal or banking information via a link in an email or text message.
Those who receive suspicious calls or texts are urged to delete them or hang up immediately.
Banks have issued a warning to Aussies to be aware of scammers