Bank robbers grabbing Aussie millions

There was a time when bank robbers were seen in a very negative light and could sometimes be shot on sight.

Now they are more likely to happily ride off into the sunset with very little chance of being caught and have a new name – scamsters.

It seems absolutely extraordinary that we have allowed this situation to develop but with banks very slow off the mark to act and the scamsters getting more and more sophisticated in how they rob our bank accounts, the modern-day bank robbers are getting a low-risk free ride to the savings of Australians.

It is hard to believe, but a staggering $88.7 million of Australian’s hard-earned cash has been stolen in the first five months of this year alone and it is absolutely clear that when it comes to getting their cash back, most scam victims may as well sit in a corner and cry rather than rely on anybody riding to their rescue.

Money back scam return unlikely

It doesn’t matter how they were scammed – by clicking on an email, responding to a text that looked like it came from their bank or answering the phone – the chances are that their money is lost forever and that no action will be taken against the scamsters.

ScamWatch said that until May this year there have been 2275 reports to authorities – which is likely to be the tip of a much bigger iceberg – and almost half of those reports involved a loss of money.

If you think the bank will have your back if you become a victim of a scam, think again – Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) numbers show that of big four bank customers hit by scams, 96% wore the loss themselves.

It doesn’t matter how sophisticated or devious the scam was or if the customer has lost their entire life savings, the bank is unlikely to pick up the tab unless it can be proved there was absolutely no involvement from the customer.

Impersonation is no excuse

It doesn’t matter that the scamster has been able to impersonate official phone numbers, email addresses and websites or if their scam texts appear as part of the same conversation thread as genuine bank messages.

With bank transfers now close to instantaneous and with scamsters able to jump deposits through a range of accounts until they arrive overseas, by the time the “sheriff” is called for, the money is long gone and the bank is relatively powerless to retrieve the bulk of the cash.

There are some moves by the banks to slow down the number of scams, but the level of sophistication being used to prevent such scams is way behind the sorts of ruthless and emotional tactics being used by investment and other scammers to steal your money.

Even sophisticated customers are victims

It is no longer the case that scam victims are unsophisticated customers who are sucked in by a rogue sales pitch – even very switched-on consumers have been ripped off by scams and the scale of the problem tends to be underestimated because of the level of embarrassment felt by those who have been scammed.

The attitude of the banks is basically that if a customer initiated a transaction, then it is their fault and responsibility if the money went to scamsters rather than to a legitimate financial institution or service provider that the person thought they were using.

There has been some official action with the federal government putting aside $87 million in the May budget for a new National Anti-Scam Centre within the ACCC which will have the ability to take down phishing websites and investment scams but that is unlikely to prevent the problem.

Banks slow to take action

Banks are trying to set up some scam prevention measures such as checking or matching account names rather than just account numbers but it is still very possible to transfer large sums to an unknown account very quickly without a security check.

What is notable about the bank action is that it is all based on the customer being awake to the possibility of a scam rather than the bank taking too much action to slow down or check transactions until it is too late.

All of which is hardly reassuring while the scamsters are happily skimming millions of dollars out of people’s bank accounts seemingly without any chance of capture or even identification or discovery.

Of course, as a customer it is prudent to be incredibly careful and to take all possible steps to avoid such scams, but will we need to get to the stage of calling the bank before each transaction to check the bona fides of the recipient?

Because if that is where it has got to, then the banks will all need to hire a lot more people to answer the phone!