After losing $12,000 to con artists posing as Telstra employees, a single Victorian mother raising two children is left feeling “dumb and stupid.”
Without Rachel divulging her personal information, the scam led to the hacking of her bank accounts.
She claimed that because of the terrible event, she now feels emotionally abused and is unsure of whom she may trust going forward.
“After this incident, I felt so silly and foolish, and I still feel…
This makes me feel much more exposed than I previously felt,’ Rachel told 9News.
It is believed that on May 4, a man posing as a Telstra technician took advantage of her.
She had been anticipating a call from Telstra to help her with an NBN issue that had arisen following a move.
After Rachel complained that the telecoms giant had taken forever to reply, the con artist moved her to a senior technician.
Then, a man who introduced himself as “Steve Williams” informed her that her data had been hacked since the computer’s IP address had been compromised.
When an online map with her IP address indicated that she was in the US, things started to seem a little odd.
He tried to comfort her by giving her a Melbourne phone number, ID, and Melbourne address after she expressed her apprehension about granting access to her computer.
He used fear to control, she claimed.
He urged her to delete all of the spam from her email and to put off using her phone or the internet for a few hours.
The man claimed to be a hacker and sent her junk texts.
But he told her to say “yes” to everything.
After telling Rachel that a technician would arrive at her house, the con artist was able to get her home address.
He gave a date, time, a man’s name, badge number, employee ID, and work address.
The man struck up a conversation in an effort to learn more about you.
He asked her to move her money into one account after informing her that two of her bank accounts had been compromised.
Rachael recalled, “I disagreed with him, stating I felt incredibly scared doing this.”
She then moved her funds to an account other than the one he had requested.
The con artist then ordered her to modify the PINs for her bank cards.
After hanging up, Rachel examined her bank accounts right away.
It revealed that a total of $12,000 had been spent through three transfers to different banks and two cash withdrawals.
She received a call from someone pretending to be calling from Telstra after deleting the software that gave the man access to her computer.
The prior employee shouldn’t have had access to her computer screen, they informed her.
Before receiving a voicemail from a man claiming to be from Westpac’s fraud department, Rachael hung up and ignored another 10 calls.
She was on hold with Westpac at the time and hadn’t yet explained what had happened, so this raised a red flag.
They instantly hang up after I ask, “Are you serious?,” Rachel remembered.
Westpac consented to reimburse the whole amount stolen in the scheme.
A bank representative urged all Australians to exercise caution while dealing with con artists.
The Telstra website offers the following advice: “If the caller is claiming to be from Telstra, do not give out any personal information, payment card information, or online account information over the phone…unless you made the call and the number you contacted came from a trustworthy source.”