‘Traumatised’: Aussie loses $50k after seemingly innocent text 2023.12.11……【Press】【Australia】A Sydney man has been left “traumatised” after he was scammed out of $50,000 for falling for what appeared to be an innocent text from his bank.
Gerald Chin, 41, first received a text he believed was from HSBC Australia, asking him to call them on the night of Wednesday, November 29.
“You have signed in from another mobile. If this was NOT you call us,” the message, obtained by 7Newsread.
According to the outlet, the text appeared in the same thread Mr Chin had received previously from his bank, leading him to believe it was a legitimate message.
After calling, he was asked to provide his personal details and username for verification purposes.
He was then informed by the hacker, pretending to be from the bank, that another device thousands of kilometres away in Perth had logged into his account and their fraud team had spotted attempts to transfer $49,000 of his money.
He had saved up the money to take his parents overseas for Christmas.
➤【澳大利亚】“精神受到了创伤”：一名悉尼男子因收到诈骗短信而损失了 5 万澳元。这是一个令人信服的细节，让他放松了警惕。
41 岁的 Gerald Chin（陈） 首先收到一条他认为来自澳大利亚汇丰银行的短信，要求他在 11 月 29 日星期三晚上给他们打电话。
“您已从另一部手机登录。如果不是，请给我们打电话。” 7News获得的消息这样写道。
据该媒体报道，这条短信出现在 Chin 先生之前从他的银行收到的同一条线索中，这让他相信这是一条合法的信息。
致电后，他被要求提供个人详细信息和用户名以进行验证。
随后，冒充银行的黑客通知他，数千公里外的珀斯的另一台设备已登录他的账户，他们的欺诈团队发现有人试图转移他的 49,000 澳元资金。他攒了这笔钱准备带父母去海外过圣诞节。
为了解决这个问题，这名操着英国口音的黑客建议Chin先生锁定他的账户，并要求他提供手机上的银行代码。
“诈骗者后来在电话结束时告诉我，一旦完成调查，他们就会回复我，”Chin 先生告诉 7News。
这位41岁的男子相信事情已经得到解决，但诈骗者后来再次联系他，要求提供更多银行代码，这引起了他的警觉。
出于担忧，Chin先生立即拨打了汇丰银行的求助热线，却被告知他的账户被盗了。
他说：“当我意识到自己被骗了时，我感到非常震惊和沮丧，因为我花了很长时间才存下这笔钱，而且现在知道我将难以支付抵押贷款和账单，财务压力开始显现。”
陈先生表示，这次磨难让他“受到了创伤”，他无法工作和睡觉，因为他知道自己的个人信息落入骗子手中。
被盗的钱也让他倒退了“几年”，他再也无力带年迈的父母去美国看望弟弟过圣诞节了。
“现在我知道自己无力承担这笔费用，这真是令人心碎，我不知道现在该告诉他们什么，因为我不想让父母为我担心。”
与此同时，陈先生的案件正在接受欺诈调查，这可能需要数周时间。
当他与汇丰银行交谈时，他表示，他被告知近几个月其他银行也成为数据泄露的目标，这表明该银行“转移了”责任。
“我认为汇丰银行并没有采取足够的严肃态度和响应措施为其系统引入保障措施并就反复出现的诈骗问题提供透明度，”他说。
汇丰银行发言人告诉7News，他们无法对个别案件发表评论，但他们保证“将彻底调查任何报告的诈骗或欺诈案件”。
“汇丰银行非常重视客户安全，”他们表示。
“我们建议客户忽略任何通过电话、电子邮件或短信索取其机密信息（例如 PIN、登录密码或验证码）的请求。”
根据澳大利亚竞争与消费者委员会的数据，今年澳大利亚人因诈骗损失了 9200 万澳元，其中仅银行冒充诈骗就损失了 1100 万澳元。

‘Traumatised’: Aussie loses $50k after seemingly innocent text
A Sydney man has been left $50,000 out of pocket after falling for a scam text. Here’s the one convincing detail that caused him to drop his guard.

3 min read
December 11, 2023 – 12:25PM

A Sydney man has been left “traumatised” after he was scammed out of $50,000 for falling for what appeared to be an innocent text from his bank.

Gerald Chin, 41, first received a text he believed was from HSBC Australia, asking him to call them on the night of Wednesday, November 29.

“You have signed in from another mobile. If this was NOT you call us,” the message, obtained by 7Newsread.

According to the outlet, the text appeared in the same thread Mr Chin had received previously from his bank, leading him to believe it was a legitimate message.

After calling, he was asked to provide his personal details and username for verification purposes.

He was then informed by the hacker, pretending to be from the bank, that another device thousands of kilometres away in Perth had logged into his account and their fraud team had spotted attempts to transfer $49,000 of his money.

He had saved up the money to take his parents overseas for Christmas.

To solve the issue, the hacker, who spoke with an English accent, suggested that Mr Chin lock his account and asked him to provide bank codes from his phone.

“The scammer later concluded the call by telling me they will get back to me once they have finished their investigation,” Mr Chin told 7News.

The 41-year old believed the matter had been dealt with but the scammer later contacted him again asking for more bank codes, setting off alarm bells.

Concerned, Mr Chin immediately rung the HSBC helpline only to be told his account had been pillaged.

who had saved up money to take his parents overseas for Christmas,

“I’m devastated and gutted realising I have been scammed as it took a long time to save up that money and the financial stress has kicked in now knowing that I will be struggling to make payments for my mortgage and bills,” he said.

“Traumatised” by the ordeal, Mr Chin said he is unable to work and sleep knowing his personal information is in the hands of scammers.

The stolen money has also set him back “a few years” and he is no longer able to afford to take his aged parents to the US to see his brother for Christmas.

“It’s now a heart-wrenching situation knowing that I won’t be able to afford this, and I’m not sure what to tell them now as I do not want my parents to worry about me.”

In the meantime, Mr Chin has been left to wait while his case is subject to a fraud investigation which could take weeks.

When he spoke to HSBC, he said he was told that other banks had been the target of data breaches in recent months, suggesting the bank “deflected” the blame.

“I felt there hasn’t been much seriousness and responsiveness taken by HSBC to introduce safeguards to their system and provide transparency about the recurring scam issues,” he said.

A HSBC spokesperson told news.au they are unable to comment on individual cases, however they assured they “thoroughly investigate any reported cases of scam or fraud”.

“HSBC takes customer security very seriously,” they said.

“We advise customers to ignore any requests for their confidential information such as PINs, log-in passwords or verification codes through phone calls, emails or SMS messages.”

Aussies have lost a staggering $92 million to scams this year, – $11 million to bank impersonation scams alone – according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

“Scammers deliberately put their victims under pressure and make them feel like they need to act quickly, such as making claims there has been suspicious activity on their bank account. Don’t rush to act. Take a moment to consider if it could be a scam,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said in a statement.

It comes as Westpac has issued a warning to be extra careful around buying and selling scams this festive season, which are up a whopping 47 per cent compared with last year.

These scams are often advertised through fake websites, social media ads and online market places and offer cheap prices to consumers looking to purchase presents for loved ones this Christmas.

“Scammers often target customers at this time of year when people are spending more and can sometimes be a bit more distracted,” Westpac’s head of fraud Ben Young told NCA Newswire.

“To put this into perspective, Westpac facilitated more than 31 million point-of-sale transactions during the recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, leading to a 5 per cent increase in fraud-related calls.”

He suggested always calling “a business or supplier to independently confirm if payment details are accurate before sending any money, never click on links sent via SMS or email and be cautious about anyone who instructs you to urgently download an app or install a program onto your mobile or computer.”