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Peter Willyams was having dinner when he was scammed out of thousands of dollars via a simple text message from what looked to be his bank, the Bank of New Zealand.
It had been a long day at his work course in Brisbane, back in May, when the Auckland resident got a text saying that his “BNZ account had been frozen”.
Willyams believed the message was real because he didn’t tell the bank he was out of the country and thought his spending in Australia may have caused his account to be frozen.
The link took Willyams to what looked like a legitimate BNZ website, that asked him to enter his details.
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”In my haste to rectify this, I clicked on the link which took me to a BNZ-looking website. I tried to enter my details with no result. I then tried calling the bank but was unable to get through due to a long wait time.
“A few minutes later I received a call from a man…that worked for the BNZ and did I know a deposit of $7600 had been placed in my account?” he said.
Within minutes $35,000 had been withdrawn from Willyams’ account. The speed of it all surprised him.
Willyams said he was stuck in Australia with next to no money, and was only able to return home through a small amount of finances in another account, and the help of a colleague who was on the trip with him.
“I went to my local BNZ and was issued with a new access code. I also asked them for an update from the bank fraud investigation. I received an email later in the day stating that it would take eight to 10 weeks to investigate and in the meantime I needed to pay the $20,000 Visa bill.”
Willyams said the whole ordeal had taken a toll on not only his finances, but his mental health too.
“It’s the first thing I think of when I wake up. It’s really playing on my mental health and my ability to function… I’m sure the other people [that have been scammed] are in exactly the same mental thought process, kicking themselves for clicking on the link,” he said.
Willyams’ story is one of many as more Kiwis are falling victim to fake BNZ text scams with customers out of pocket wanting the bank to investigate.
Last month, Queenstown woman Savannah Jackson lost $42,000 through a similar text messaging scam.
Previously, BNZ has warned customers to be hypervigilant and not to respond to texts or give out personal details when receiving these text message scams.
The scam, is one of many circulating that present themselves as SMS text messages from legitimate organisations such as Waka Kotahi, NZ Post, Inland Revenue and numerous New Zealand-based banks.
A usual message provides a link which leads to a fake website where people were asked to enter information including internet banking login details, credit card details, driver licence and other personal details.
Advice for dealing with scams:
- Not all messages will look the same, as scammers change their wording over time.
- Do not engage with or click any links before you know a message is genuine.
- To check if a message is genuine, check directly with the people it came from. Go to the organisation’s website or check your online account directly.
- Scam messages commonly contain bad or irregular spelling and grammar. Use this as your first sign that this could be a scam.
- Never provide any card or personal details if you do click a bad link.
- If you have paid money already, speak to your bank as soon as possible and let them know what’s happened.
- It can be harder for people that don’t frequently use their phone to recognise a scam, such as the elderly or vulnerable. Check in with your whānau to help them learn how to avoid falling victim to an SMS scam.
If you receive a scam text, forward the message to the Department of Internal Affairs free of charge at 7726.
You will then receive a text from DIA. Reply with the phone number the message was sent from.
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