...One of many scammers...

It brings me sadness to know we live in an era where some people think that taking money from others is acceptable. 

Now, by the word "taking", I am referring to people who steal and rob innocent people blind.

Most recently I was indirectly affected by one of these scammers who took money from an elderly man I know.

A man who has little knowledge of scammers, hackers and the digital world. 

So, he was an easy "target"...

This story is being shared for the purposes of:

Awareness and Prevention

The latest technique - the scammer calls representing a phone company.

In this case it was "Optus". Ironically the victim was having difficulties with Optus and was expecting a call from his discussions from the day before.

The scammer says they changed something to the phone lines and would like to provide the gentlemen with a refund for his troubles. The scammer requested to "check" the internet connection on his laptop to ensure the internet was now working smoothly.

The scammer asks for the IP address (which they guided him to obtain) and they essentially installed a "program" in order to perform some "tests". They then asked the gentlemen to log onto his bank account, to confirm that the refunded money was indeed received.

At this time the gentleman did not suspect anything and did as requested...in the meantime the scammers were watching every move he made.

The victim saw an amount on his bank statement with the description "optus refund", so all appeared as a legitimate refund.

Now little did the gentlemen know at the time, but the "refund" transaction made was from his own money! They transferred money from his credit card account to his streamline account.

Now most of us would not have gone this far... so please remember that this is not about what you (or me) would have done...but rather notifying those who possibly could come this far, and to warn them of this scam. 

The game continues...

When the scammer did the transfer he says panicking "oh no ....I transferred too much money...instead of $300, I transferred $3,000!!! Please sir, help me I made a big mistake. Oh no, I'm going to loose my job sir. Please sir, help me. I made a terrible mistake and can't tell my boss sir"...

It goes on for a while, making the other person feel sorry for him and naturally wanting to help them rectify "the mistake". 

The scammer then instructs the elderly gentleman to refund the difference by going to the 7 Eleven where he could transfer cash via "Money Gram" (alias Money Scam) to his account so that he wouldn't loose his job and his boss wouldn't find out.

Unfortunately the trusting gentleman; a man of his word, went ahead and followed his instructions...and before he knew it,

his money was gone. 

As he investigated and reported this scam to the local Police they basically said there was nothing they could do and he would need to lodge his incident with international authorities. Basically, a quick dismissal with little assistance to say the least.

In hindsight the gentleman felt as though something wasn't right and he should have went with his gut feeling. However he felt deeply sorry for the scammer who could potentially lose his job. 

The victim was left saddened by his monetary loss but was more upset that he would be labeled stupid or naive. He was left trying to understand how or why this could happen to him. 

I warned him that the scammer was more than likely to try again. Maybe not tomorrow, but certainly some time down the track. He stated that he understood and learned a valuable lesson, but wanted to warn others so that it wouldn't happen to them. 

So here I am, spreading the word, on his behalf.

These scammers are professional criminals and are good at hiding their tracks and it is unfortunate that we have systems in place to help support such schemes.

All I ask, is that you don't judge him, or criticise his actions, but rather educate those who could fall victim to such low lives.

If we share this current scam, we may reduce the chances of it happening to someone you may actually know. 

~Thank you~