A Bank Refused To Reimburse $32,000 To Grandma With Terminal Illness

According to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lyn Reads, a grandmother suffering from a terminal illness, claims that an Australia-based bank should have been able to prevent a scam that resulted in the theft of approximately $50,000 AUD (equivalent to $32,000 USD) from her bank account. Check out more details below.

Initially, Reads received a text message that seemed to be from Bendigo Bank.

When she contacted the number provided in the message, she spoke to a criminal who convinced her that her account was being attacked. As a result, Reads provided her six-digit passcode, which enabled the scammer to transfer her funds to two accounts at the same bank.

After suspecting that she had fallen victim to a scam, Reads wasted no time in visiting her local branch for assistance.

The teller at the branch assured her that the lender’s fraud team would retrieve the thousands of dollars that had been saved in her account within two weeks. However, nine months have passed, and there is still a disagreement with the bank over the return of her funds.

Documents reveal that the bank took over an hour to label the relevant accounts as “mule accounts” after Reads had notified her local branch, which are accounts used by criminals to collect funds. Unfortunately, the funds had already been withdrawn by that point.

Reads believes that the bank should have taken prompt action, given that the accounts involved in the theft were also held with Bendigo Bank, and that the bank should have flagged the highly unusual transfers from her account.

“They were large sums of money and it was quite out of the ordinary for me.”

According to Bendigo Bank, Reads is to blame for the loss because she shared her passcode with the scammer.

However, Reads, who is terminally ill with cancer, explains that she needs the money to enjoy her remaining time with her children and grandchildren and to cover her funeral expenses.

In the past year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has received over 14,500 reports of bank impersonation scams, resulting in losses of more than $20 million AUD.