Thieves drained $150,000 from the victim's accounts, then used his credit cards to purchase up to $70,000 of Prezzy Cards at service stations.
Thieves drained $150,000 from the victim's accounts, then used his credit cards to purchase up to $70,000 of Prezzy Cards at service stations.
Cyber criminals convinced an elderly man his credit cards had been “compromised”, gained access to his online banking then drained $150,000 from his accounts, all while spying on the pensioner for seven hours via his laptop’s webcam.
They rang the man on his landline pretending to be from Westpac Bank’s fraud team, saying his account had been used in Los Angeles and the only way to recover the money was to share his banking details.
They then sent him a suspect email that his family believe gave the thieves unfettered access to the 82-year-old’s computer.
The crooks successfully transferred $150,000 from the man’s online accounts at Westpac, ANZ and HSBC on to his credit cards before sending a “courier” to his house to pick up the “compromised” cards as part of a bogus bank security operation.
Next, they drove to various service stations around South Auckland and used the man’s credit cards to purchase up to $70,000 of Prezzy Cards - a ploy to launder fraudulently obtained money.
The man’s daughter arrived at his house during the ruse and realised he’d been duped, shutting down his computer and disconnecting his phone.
Undeterred, the scammers tried ringing the man more than 60 times over the next two hours, eager to fleece him for every last possible cent.
The family immediately contacted the banks to have his accounts frozen and credit cards cancelled before reporting the fraud to police, and blocking those Prezzy Cards that were yet to be cashed in by the thieves.
But four months on, the family is frustrated with the lack of police progress due to a backlog of cases, despite the family identifying the service stations where the Prezzy Cards were purchased and tracking down CCTV footage of the offenders.
And while the banks have now refunded most of the stolen money, the family claims Westpac dragged the chain. The bank eventually apologised for the delay, saying its fraud team was “absolutely snowed” with similar cases of online crime.
“After I went nuts at them, within three days they rang up and said, ‘We’re really sorry, we haven’t got enough investigators but we’re going to refund the money’,” the man’s son-in-law told the Herald on Sunday.
The man’s daughter was shocked to learn the thieves had been spying on her father for hours over webcam, instructing him to put down his mobile phone when he tried calling relatives for help.
They pretended to be his friends but were instead pilfering money from his online bank accounts.
He “panicked” when she shut down his computer, convinced the person on the phone was helping him address a serious banking security issue.
He had now lost confidence and felt embarrassed about being taken in, the daughter said.
“Because dad was on his own I think he was just much more vulnerable to being caught out.
“He felt humiliated about the whole situation. None of his friends even know it happened. We just kept the whole thing quiet.”
The family used bank records to identify the service stations where the scammers purchased the Prezzy Cards - loading up to $9000 in a single transaction.
The man’s son-in-law visited the stations the next day and asked staff to hold CCTV footage of the offenders for police.
Cyber criminals gained access to the man's computer and used the pensioner's webcam to spy on him for seven hours. Photo / 123RF
However, despite the incident occurring in August, he was told last month police were yet to assign the case and were unlikely to do so given the number of fraud cases and a lack of resources.
“Police have done absolutely nothing. The lady I spoke to said it’s probably not going to be assigned. They’ve got so much work.”
The son-in-law said the theft involved a lot of money. He was worried for other families’ elderly relatives who could also fall victim to similar scams.
The large Prezzy Card purchases should have raised suspicions at the service stations, the son-in-law said.
He felt banks needed to take more responsibility for safeguarding people’s money and he wanted police to take action to identify the crooks.
“We thought the money had gone to Kazakhstan, but then found out it was South Auckland. They are local people so there must be a way to track it.”
The family had the man’s laptop and phone forensically “cleaned” at the banks’ request, but later opted to replace the devices because they were so corrupted by malware.
They were frustrated that neither police nor the banks contacted Prezzy Card to freeze the unused cards, instead leaving this to the family.
They also questioned why an 82-year-old man purchasing $70,000 in Prezzy Cards in the space of a few hours had not raised any red flags with the banks.
Westpac NZ head of financial crime Mark Coxhead said the bank reimbursed the customer’s loss in full, but acknowledged it had taken longer than normal due to a high workload.
In line with industry trends, Westpac customers were experiencing an increase in attempted fraud and scams.
“We’ve increased our team of financial crime investigators by more than 40 per cent in the past few months in response.”
Westpac’s financial crime team had seen recent examples of scammers posing as telecommunication workers and entering people’s homes to take control of their computers and bank accounts, and others turning up to collect cash from customers.
“Scams of this nature are not only dangerous but are slowly becoming quite rampant.
“These scams have an insidious impact on the victims.”
A police spokesperson said “some initial enquires” had been carried out into a report of fraud, including the viewing of CCTV and obtaining correspondence from banks.
“The investigation remains active and further enquires are currently being carried out by an investigator.”
Police received a large number of fraud-related reports every day, and had a dedicated team reviewing and investigating each incident.
“Occasionally police are required to redeploy staff to areas of additional risk, such as incidents involving violence against a person or property and this can often cause delays.
“Police would like to remind the community to be wary of online messages they may receive, particularly at this time of the year which can include offers of gift cards or giveaways and to always approach messages from unknown numbers with caution.”
CERT NZ senior threat analyst Sam Leggett said the Prezzy Card case was an example of a tech phone scam, where the scammer calls targets pretending to be from a reputable organisation like a bank or internet provider.
“They claim there is some kind of issue and they need access to your computer to help fix the problem.
“If the scammer is given remote access to your device, via specific remote access software, typically they can access any information stored on that device. The scammer will also be able to access the online accounts that you enabled ‘auto-login’ or ‘remember password’ features for. This is usually how they make off with your money.”
Leggett said reports of these scams were increasing steadily this year – including 61 in the third quarter alone. They often resulted in significant financial loss.
“Unfortunately, these scammers do a very good job of sounding legitimate and creating a sense of urgency within their victims, encouraging those victims to follow instructions.”
If a caller from a reputable organisation claimed to need remote access to your devices, CERT NZ recommended ending the call immediately and contacting the organisation directly using a publicly listed number.
