SENIORS are being targeted by a telephone scam and are being warned not to send money to anonymous people providing bank details over the phone.
An 81-year-old man was last week saved from sending $550 to a ruthless scammer by an NAB teller at his local branch.
The man was contacted by telephone on Friday by scammers with foreign accents who claimed to be representatives from Windows.
They said their names were John and Justin.
John the scammer provided the phone number and told the elderly man his computer had a virus.
Justin the scammer then gave the man a set of complex instructions in order to access his computer, following which he advised him to send $550 to e-commerce with the following bank details – BSB 015-343, Account 190315408.
The man received a number of calls chasing payment, so he went down to his local NAB branch where a scam-savvy teller advised him the account number belonged to another bank.
The teller urged the 81-year-old not to send the money because she believed he was being scammed.
Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe said the incident highlighted the important role banks and other agencies that did financial transactions had in protecting the public against scams.
“Were it not for this teller taking an interest in her elderly customer, he could have been $550 out of pocket, a substantial amount of money that would inevitably have been compounded by a sense of embarrassment and disappointment common to scam victims,” Mr Stowe said.
