‘Telstra’ scammers trick elderly woman out of $23,000 in just a month

An elderly woman has been scammed out of more than $20,000 in just a month after falling for two phone-call frauds.

The fraudsters masqueraded behind the trusted brand name of Telstra to trick the 89-year-old out of her savings, the Maitland Mercury reported.

The newspaper reported that a fraudster phoned the woman and, purporting to represent Telstra, conned her into transferring $5,000, even helping her set up an online banking profile to make the transfer quicker. After the first transfer, the scammer had gained access to her accounts and made another three transfers for the same amount in the space of just a week in February.

Then, in early March, the woman was contacted by the same person or someone connected to them, who offered to return the cash in return for $3,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. Neither the cash nor the cards were returned to her.

Read more: Six easy steps to protect your assets from cybercrime

Glenn Bain, a chief inspector at Maitland Police, said the calls were likely made from overseas, according to the Mercury.

Telstra itself has repeatedly warned customers against transferring money or allowing access to accounts when advised by phone, telling people that the company doesn’t ever initiate contact with customers by phone unless the customer has requested it.

It says there are usually several warning signs that a call is a scam, such as poor call quality, a request for immediate action or claims that your computer has a virus or is spreading a virus to others.

“Often they will apply inappropriate pressure, including threats and potentially inappropriate language, as part of their scam,” the company says. “We’ll never phone and ask for information like your bank or credit card details unless it relates to an existing account requiring payment. We won’t call you repeatedly about the same offer if you’ve said no. We will never engage in high pressure sales tactics, create uncertainty or unnecessary dilemmas about your services or personal information.”

You can check what Telstra would actually contact you about on this page. Unfortunately, once money has been transferred from an Australian bank account to an overseas one, it’s difficult for the Aussie bank to have it returned, so the chance of losing the savings for good is high. Because of this, Australian banks advise never making a transfer in the heat of the moment, but waiting to verify all of the details with the company allegedly contacting you.

Have you had one, or plenty, of these calls? Do you know anyone who’s been defrauded by the Telstra scam?