Only defence against scammers is to be aware of their schemes

It's rare for a day to pass in which I don't get a call from "Amazon", but I've never heard what they want to say, because I immediately hang up. And if you try to call back the number the phone call appeared to come from, a recorded message says that the number does not exist.

Last week I got an indication of how clever they are becoming. A close friend told me that her mother, Enid, had received a call from "Amazon" to tell her that there had been a purchase of an iPhone 11 for $900 on her account, which she needed to approve.

Enid denied the purchase, so they told her they were transferring the call to the "Australian Cyber Fraud Department". The next person she spoke to told Enid that she was a victim of cyber crime, but luckily they had caught it in time, and she could help him catch the scammers. All she needed to do was open her computer and log on to a website.

Like most seniors, Enid is very trusting. She opened the website, still on the phone, but unbeknown to her it installed a program that gave the scammer access to her computer. He then instructed her to check her online bank account, which enabled him to see the balance, and gave him all the information he needed to operate on the account. Her screen then went black, and he showed her a screenshot of her bank account showing $15,000 had been deposited. It had not really been deposited, but the scammers are getting so sophisticated they can manipulate a photo of your bank account to make it look as though transactions have actually happened.

He then claimed the scammer must still be online, and that to help catch them, Enid needed to go to her local branch and withdraw $15,000 in cash.

Of course, being a law-abiding person, she was keen to help. He kept her on the phone even while she was driving to the bank, and stressed she should tell nobody about any of this.

When she questioned the amount, saying the bank wouldn't let her take out that much cash, he told her to tell them it was to buy a car.

Enid fell for it, but she was getting very stressed, so fortunately she called in at her daughter's house to ask her to come to the bank with her.

When her daughter, my friend, found out what was happening, she grabbed her mum's phone and asked the caller who he was.

When challenged like this, he simply hung up. Enid immediately rang the bank and discovered that her daily limit of $2500 had already been transferred out of her account. Apparently, there is a slim chance this can be recovered.

Luckily, Enid and her daughter were able to prevent the larger cash withdrawal from happening, and the bank also promptly blocked internet banking to prevent any further withdrawals.

Later, Enid also discovered a request had been sent from her internet banking account to increase the daily limit.

Enid is an intelligent woman, but the scammers have this down to a fine art. The only defence is to be aware of it. Never accept phone calls from people you don't know.

And there was still one more expense: the family had to pay $130 to get Enid's computer completely cleaned of malware. All in all, it was a very expensive morning.