Salon owner loses $40,000 from one $60 deposit
When beautician Thuy Le received a call from a supposed customer’s ‘husband’ regarding an accidental payment, she could never have foreseen the devastating turn her life would take from that point on.
The mother of two, whose husband is living with Parkinsons and unable to work, recounted how her harrowing ordeal started with that one phone call, and the man on the other end requesting she return the $60 his wife had ‘accidentally’ paid.
Le checked her bank statements to verify his story, and after noting one deposit that matched, she transferred the funds into the account he provided.
She did not provide any of her own personal information, her passwords, or any critical numbers for her accounts. And yet, in the time to follow, Le could only watch in horror as more withdrawals were made from her account, into the very same one owned by the customer’s ‘husband’.
The withdrawals totalled a devastating $41,600 stolen from Le’s life savings.
Le also recounted how she was refused access to her business account, and that she got in touch with her bank as soon as she realised what had happened, suspecting she had been scammed.
Her quest for support in her time of need was cut short, with the financial institution placing the blame solely on Le and ruling that they were not liable for the losses she had endured - this was despite the suspicious withdrawals raising no alarm with the bank, and the lack of personal information involved in the scam.
Of their questionable red flag system, the bank claimed that it is “nearly impossible for an unauthorised third party to guess”, referencing the way that the logins for the costly transaction all succeeded on the very first try.
Furthermore, as stated in a letter to Le, they declared that “the only reasonable explanation for these logins would be that your online banking credentials were known to the unauthorised third party, which would be in breach of the passcode security requirements.”
“I am in financial hardship,” Le admitted of her dire situation, and the need to have the funds returned for her family and her husband’s crucial medication.
“I have two little kids, I have a husband with Parkinson’s disease, he cannot work,” she continued. “We are still in the process of applying for government help and I have carried the financial burden on my shoulders.”
While Le’s bank offered $200 to resolve her complaint, she was offered no further assistance, and took matters to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, hoping to have her money returned to her.
“I can’t sleep,” she confessed. “I want to know why this happened to me and how it happened to me.
“I’m not a liar, not a criminal, not a fraud.”
Images: Supplied to 7News, Facebook