It seems no one is safe from the shocking rise in the number of scams hitting everyday Aussies, with the boss of the nation’s financial watchdog revealing he was recently fleeced out of thousands.
Justin Untersteiner – the chief operating officer of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) – said he was out of pocket $4,000 after falling victim to a banking scam this week.
“I received a message from my banking app letting me know that I’d overdrawn my account by $4,000,” Untersteiner told A Current Affair.
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“I thought that was very strange. I went into my internet banking and found there had been four $1,000 payments from an unknown provider from my account.”
The watchdog executive said he tried to call his bank about the transactions but it took him an hour and 15 minutes to get through to someone.
“I don’t think that is good enough,” he said. “I think when people have been scammed it’s a really traumatic experience, they should be able to get through to the banks very quickly .”
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While he was placed on hold, Untersteiner said he was worried more money could be taken from his account and panicked about whether he would be able to get the money back.
While Untersteiner said $4,000 was a significant amount of money, he noted that AFCA had seen cases where people had lost more than $1 million to scams.
“We want to see the banks doing more to prevent scams , [and have] faster implementation of initiatives and technology,” he said.
Untersteiner said he was currently “in limbo” waiting on an outcome from his bank, but said he was hopeful he would get his money back.
Scam complaints double
The rise in the number and types of scams has contributed to a record number of complaints to AFCA – reaching more than 100,000 last year.
AFCA chief ombudsman and CEO David Locke said complaints were increasing at an “unsustainable” rate, with scam-related complaints doubling to nearly 9,000 between 2022 and 2023.
“We are also seeing the impact of increased interest rates and cost-of-living pressures, with complaints involving financial hardship also significantly higher,” Locke said.
“As we head into the new year, our hope for 2024 is that this will be the year that anti-scam initiatives by industry and government finally disrupt this serious and organised crime.”
The banking industry launched a new Scam-Safe Accord in November last year, which outlines the actions every bank must take to protect Australians against scams. The government also established a new National Anti-Scams Centre in July last year.
Aussies lost more than $3 billion to scams in 2022, an increase of 80 per cent from 2021.
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