Fight back against scammers

Australians are set to lose up to $4 billion this year here's how to avoid becoming one of the victims

- SUSAN HELY

Even the most financially sophisticated people can be scammed. Take the case of Joanna, a 60-year-old tech executive who sits on a couple of ASX-listed company boards.

Joanna bought a car online. She had been looking for a while and a good deal popped up on a reputable website. In a series of convincing emails with the car's owner, it all sounded legitimate. It wasn't until Joanna sent the money to the owner's bank account that she realised she had been tricked. She had handed over her money, but she wasn't going to get a car.

In hindsight, Joanna says she was busy and in a hurry, which made her susceptible to being fleeced. But it is what happened after she paid her money that made it worse. All websites recommend you contact your bank if you have been scammed. So, Joanna did just that to try to stop the transaction. But she couldn't get through to her bank or the car owner's bank. She sat on hold for long periods over four days, for what she estimates to be about eight hours, trying to resolve the issue, knowing it was unlikely the money was still in her account.

She emailed her bank but the scammer's bank didn't have an email address for sending through an alert. In fact, it was a subsidiary of her own bank. Then she tried to contact other key people at the bank through LinkedIn.

In the meantime, her research uncovered that the fraudster seemed to have scammed about 300 people around the world. He used the same scam, selling cars that didn't exist. Most likely he was part of an organised racket.

Joanna wrote to the banks: "Why would anyone have to try so hard to get help and to notify banks of a scam. We would like to try to recover the funds and stop activity on the scammer's side. Their account at the bank, suggests the Know Your Customer is problematic."