A young woman has exposed the red flags she missed after falling victim to a scammer and losing more than $2,500 over the phone.
Taylor Maree, who lives in Brisbane, lost the amount after a man called her from on an unknown number and claimed to be from Virgin Money on June 6.
Virgin Money provides financial services including home loans, credit cards, and superannuation and is owned by the Bank of Queensland Group.
Ms Maree, who shared her experience on TikTok, said the man claimed there had been fraudulent activity detected on her account.
‘He goes, “I’m not going to ask you for your personal information I just need to confirm with you if these transactions are yours”,’ she said.
The man began to list several expenses claiming an $800 purchase had been made on Amazon and $1,600 on an unknown website.
She told the man she didn’t make any of those purchases before he responded saying he would immediately reverse them.
He said he would text her a one-time passcode and asked if she could read it back to him.
‘He texts me and it appears from the same number that I get my Virgin Money information through,’ Ms Maree said.
Unaware the man was not who he claimed he was, Ms Maree read the pin number before she realised she had just lost thousands of dollars.
‘I reread the message and it said, “This is to complete the transaction of 1,661 British Pounds”.
Ms Maree immediately contacted her bank and was told her card had been cancelled and all transactions on her account would be blocked.
She was told that it would take at least six to eight weeks before she would be notified by the bank if her funds would be recovered.
Ms Maree was warned she may not get her money back as she read the one-time pin out to the scammer.
She urged others to be aware of ‘red flags’ including calls that are made from a no-caller ID.
‘These scammers are getting so crafty at what they’re doing and getting away with it,’ Ms Maree said.
‘Please be very careful. If it’s an unknown number just hang up and call the bank. I wish I would have done that because now I wouldn’t be so stressed about whether I’m going to get this money back or not.’
Her TikTok video was flooded with comments from hundreds of social media users who shared similar experiences.
‘That’s really sad I also got scammed in the same way about $90k,’ one wrote.
‘I got scammed 50 thousand dollars through [a] payment to [an] energy provider,’ another wrote.
Others said people need to be more vigilant as scammers use sophisticated methods to conduct their activities.
‘Answering an unknown number is complete madness,’ one person wrote.
‘Never do any transaction with them ringing you…hang up and you ring the bank,’ another person wrote.
Daily Mail contacted the Bank of Queensland for comment.
The n Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Catriona Lowe warned Aussies that scammers are using emails, phone calls, and web-based pop up messages to target people.
‘Never download software or apps if directed to by someone over the phone and never share banking information, passwords, or two-factor identification codes,’ Ms Lowe said.
ns lost more than $2.7billion to scams in 2023 with 601,000 reports made to the ACCC last year alone.
Text messages were the most common method used by scammers to target victims, while scam calls caused the highest financial loss worth $116million.
Anyone who has been the victim of a scam should contact their bank immediately and report the incident.
Report a scam to Scamwatch and the n Signals Directorate.
Contact financial counsellors to access support services.
Support services are also provided by ID Care, a not-for-profit charity to support people experiencing identity and cyber security concerns.