00:00It started with an innocuous phone call from a bank.
00:06He was offering good rates on fixed-term deposits.
00:09Nothing crazy, nothing too out of the ordinary.
00:12So I didn't think, oh, that sounds too good to be true.
00:15The timing was perfect.
00:17Harriet Spring was selling the family home on behalf of her 95-year-old mum
00:23after a series of strokes necessitated full-time aged care.
00:27It was completely at the end of a very hard year,
00:30and this guy just made it easy.
00:32Through several months of phone calls and correspondence,
00:36George convinced Mrs Spring to transfer $1.6 million.
00:41It didn't sound dodgy in any way.
00:44The real ING bank wasn't involved in any part of the process,
00:48and Mrs Spring says the money's now long gone.
00:51Her appeals for information have been unsuccessful.
00:55Others have similar sad stories.
00:58Our lawyers are hearing everyday stories of people being tricked
01:02with highly complicated, sophisticated scams.
01:05Australians lost $2.7 billion to scammers last year,
01:10down from a record high in 2022,
01:13but almost $1 billion more than two years ago.
01:17Phony investments led to the highest losses.
01:20It's near impossible to detect a scam in many cases,
01:24and therefore it's near impossible to protect yourself.
01:27Aussie banks are now facing demands to boost their fraud prevention
01:32and adopt a UK-style model of reimbursement for scam victims.
01:36I can't trust anything anymore.
01:38You should be ensured that your money is kept safe,
01:41and if it's not, then you should be reimbursed.
01:44But the federal government is confident initiatives
01:47like the National Anti-Scam Centre
01:50and a new automated confirmation of payee technology
01:53will help.
01:54We need the obligation to be at the party
01:58that is really doing the wrong thing.
02:00That technology will be rolled out by the end of 2025.
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