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Single text saves NAB customer from losing $3 million: ‘Act quickly’

The Western Australian business owner said it was a strange text from his assistant that led him to uncover the scam.

Tamika Seeto
·Finance Reporter
·3-min read
Chris Sheehan NAB scam
NAB group investigations executive Chris Sheehan said the end of financial year was a ripe time for scammers. (Source: Getty/NAB)

A Western Australian man has narrowly avoided being scammed out of $3 million. The NAB business customer said it was a strange text message that set off alarm bells that something wasn’t quite right.

Business owner Jamie* said he received a text message from his assistant asking how the weather was in Darwin. While Jamie does a “fair bit of travelling” for work, he said he hadn’t been to the city “in months” and was at home in Busselton at the time.

He ended up calling his assistant straight away, who said she had received a call from someone who claimed to be from NAB.

“Apparently my business credit card had been used in Darwin and had been blocked,” Jamie said.

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His assistant had been asked to provide the NAB Connect details for Jamie’s business account over the phone to remove the block. But thankfully she hadn’t done this.

Jamie said he immediately called up his NAB business banker, Risma Price, to see what was going on. When Price checked his account, it became clear that he was being targeted by a bank impersonation scam and his account had not actually been blocked.

Price said Jamie and his assistant did “all the right things by staying vigilant and spotting the red flags”, including the fact that the scammer hadn’t known certain account information or that Price was their usual banker.

Do you have a scam story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com

“If the scammers had managed to trick Jamie into handing over account access, they may have been able to access around $3 million in funds,” Price said.

“This all unfolded in about 20 minutes, highlighting the importance of staying alert to scammers and acting quickly.”

Jamie said he was “hyper-alert” to strange requests after having previously fallen victim to an invoice scam.

Scammers are getting better and better at impersonating businesses and organisations, including banks and government agencies like the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The National Anti-Scams Centre found Aussies were robbed $92 million last year by impersonation scams, with the scams accounting for more than 70 per cent of reports to Scamwatch between January and September.

Other Aussies aren’t as lucky as Jamie. Sunni Wan lost $50,000 of her life savings after she fell for a scammer who contacted her impersonating her bank, HSBC, claiming her account had been compromised.

“He sounded very professional. I didn't really think twice about it because he sounded like a HSBC representative,” Wan told Yahoo Finance.

The scammer convinced her to hand over her personal details and one-time passcodes, which allowed them to access and drain her account.

ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said scammers used “sophisticated tactics” to convince people they were from certain companies.

“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,” Lowe said.

NAB executive group investigations Chris Sheehan said the end of the financial year was often a prime time for scammers.

One of the top scams we see targeting business around this period is phishing scams impersonating the Australian Tax Office,” Sheehan said.

“Other key scams targeting businesses include false billing, impersonation and investment scams, which sophisticated criminals frequently use to target businesses of all types and sizes.”

Sheehan said the bank had seen a drop in customer losses between October and December 2023, compared to the same period in 2022, despite customer scam reports being on the up.

* Name changed for privacy reasons

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