A romance scam led to the downfall of a Melbourne woman, who was able to send thousands of dollars to her boyfriend overseas.
In February, she went to a National Australia Bank branch in Cranbourne, southeast Melbourne, to deposit money into an account to support her boyfriend.
The woman, who was from Turkey, said that her boyfriend needed the money to get to the UK for medical treatment.
Unfortunately, his account had been frozen. According to Dilan Pathirannahalage, a customer advisor for NAB, her boyfriend told her to send the money to a friend in Sydney.
When the woman was unable to provide the recipient’s surname, Mr Pathirannahalu began to worry.
The reason she didn’t know who the person was was was because she didn’t meet them over the phone. The woman then showed him her text messages from her boyfriend, which added to the concerns of the customer advisor.
The messages appeared to be very romantic, and Mr Pathirannahali said that the way they were being communicated could be a sign that the relationship was getting more coercive.
While talking to the customer advisor at the bank, he received a call from the scammer, who asked the woman when she was going to transfer the money.
Although the details of the scam were clear, Mr Pathiranalu said that the woman was still blinded by her boyfriend’s love.
The criminal gangs are known to target people’s kindness in order to steal their money.
Mr Pathiranalu said that he had to act quickly to convince the victim, who was referred to as Maxine, not to deposit the money.
He then called the bank’s fraud team to investigate the matter.
According to Mr Pathirannahalage, the woman was very grateful for his intervention.
Had he not intervened, she might have lost all of her pay cheque. Romance scams have been on the rise in Australia, with Scamwatch receiving more than 400 reports last year.
Scams reportedly cost the country $40 million.
The number of romance scams reported to the National Australia Bank has increased by 29 percent over the past year.
Chris Sheehan, the bank’s executive for investigations, said that the bank sees the victims of these types of frauds from all demographics and ages. He warned that these types of scams can have a significant impact on their victims.
The rise of romance scams has highlighted the need for a coordinated national strategy to combat the epidemic, as many of these types of frauds are carried out through social media platforms and dating apps. Mr Pathirannahalage said that he was glad that he was able to help the woman avoid falling victim to a scam.