Fraudsters posing as bank's fraud specialists stole $50,000 from him
A Tauranga lawyer has been targeted by scammers who disguised their call as coming from an official ANZ 0800 number, stealing $50,000 from him.
The lawyer’s story was similar to that of author Malcolm Clarke, who revealed via TikTok his run-in with scammers who pretended to be from Kiwibank’s fraud department and used what also appeared to be a legitimate 0800 number.
The fraudsters called the Tauranga man, asking him if two transactions of over $5,000 taken from his account were legitimate. When the lawyer denied making the purchases, he was told that he would be put through to ANZ’s fraud department. This was followed by a call from the crooks, posing as the bank’s fraud specialists, who then gained access to his account, NZ Herald reported.
The lawyer’s son said it was a highly sophisticated scam.
“They sounded like a normal bank, nothing to suggest they were scammers,” he told NZ Herald. “He actually said to them multiple times ‘Are you scamming me?’ and they were very calm and patient, they weren't aggressive or anything.”
The man’s son said ANZ’s actual fraud department took too long to respond, which left his father more confused.
“[My dad] called the fraud department after he realised he might be being scammed,” he said. “He was on hold for half an hour, possibly more, then it went to answerphone and asked him to leave a message. Then the scammers rang pretending to be from the fraud department which made it very cloudy to tell who was actually calling you.”
An ANZ spokeswoman said ANZ couldn’t comment specifically on the man's case without a privacy waiver.
“We understand when customers get caught in these situations it can be very stressful and we'd like to make sure the customer is getting the support they need,” she told NZ Herald.
The spokeswoman also said the bank’s customers are increasingly being targeted by scammers and that the man’s case is a reminder for all Kiwis to be careful with their private and financial information.
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As this type of scam continues to impact more Kiwis, Jordan Heersping, CERT NZ acting manager of incident response, is urging Kiwis to stay vigilant of the convincing scammers.
“We have seen an increase in scammers imitating (‘spoofing’) banks’ phone numbers to use in phishing scams,” Heersping said. “The attackers are convincing because they have done their research and can duplicate what a bank call centre will say. They also use social engineering tactics like urgency, fear and opportunity to engage people and, even if you are aware of this, it could catch you out when you're busy, tired, stressed or focused on other things.”
Heersping urged those who are caught out by the scam to report the issue to their bank and CERT NZ, and if any money was taken, the police as well. And if any password information has been given out, he said the victim should change that password anywhere it is used and to use long and unique passwords that differ for all sites they use, NZ Herald reported.
