A free workshop to raise awareness on scams is coming to Wagga on Thursday. Photo: File.
Wagga residents are invited to a free scam awareness workshop at Westpac on Thursday (25 September).
Westpac Head of Fraud Prevention Ben Young said scams were a nationwide problem, with remote access, impersonation and buying and selling scams the most common impacting people in the Riverina.
“Scams these days are almost entirely electronic,” he said.
“No part of the country is immune from scams.”
Last year, an 80-year-old Wagga woman lost $34,000 in an alleged bank impersonation scam. She said she was manipulated into transferring her money into someone else’s account by a man pretending to be from NAB.
Caroline Buchan fell victim to a highly elaborate scam. Photo: Shri Gayathirie Rajen.
Mr Young advises anyone in that situation to get a reference number and “don’t be afraid to hang up”.
“You should always be sceptical about someone calling pretending to be someone,” he said.
“So get a reference number, hang up and call back. All legitimate businesses are more than happy for you to do that.
“Don’t ever take anything on face value like that. Banks are never going to call you and ask you to move your money into a safe account.”
The fraud prevention expert also said a common sign of a scam was that “they want you to do things quickly”.
“The big thing is that scammers don’t want you to take your time,” he said.
“Anything where there’s a rush is almost certainly a scam.
“There’s always some urgency. It’s a panic, a fine, or money about to walk out the door. They don’t want you to talk to someone or check with the family member or friend.”
He said a lot of banks were investing in technology to tackle scams, with Westpac rolling out SafeCall, which is “basically in-app calling instead of calling on a normal phone line”.
Aside from hanging up if you’re even slightly unsure and not trusting instructions that require you to move your money to another account, he also advises people to never install remote access software and never lie to your bank.
“We often find scammers telling victims what to say when the bank calls, because they know banks have a very good chance of spotting a lot of these,” he said.
Remote access scams try to convince you into installing software that gives them remote access to your device. Scammers often pretend to be tech support.
He said buy and sell scams could be “region specific”. Earlier this year, a Leeton woman lost $250 after purchasing from a butcher that did not exist.
Aside from those three mentioned, investment scams are also common nationally. He said many people fell for investment scams after seeing AI-generated interviews with famous and influential figures.
Mr Young also encouraged people to talk to elderly relatives about scams, social media platforms and AI-generated content.
“Elderly customers aren’t familiar with things like DeepFake and how good they’ve become,” he said.
“It can be very, very difficult for people to understand what’s real on social media with the rise of AI and DeepFake particularly.
“The quality of [AI-generated content] now is almost perfect, so you can’t trust yourself to just visually tell the difference.”
Mr Young encourages people to take part in the workshops. He finds that it’s much easier to get feedback in face-to-face seminars, and there will be a lot of good follow-up questions.
The seminar will include details on scams impacting your local community, real-life examples to help you spot warning signs, practical steps to protect your identity and finances, support and resources for what to do if you’re impacted and an opportunity to connect directly with ID Support NSW and your local Westpac branch.
The free scam awareness workshops on Thursday (25 September) will run from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at the Westpac branch at the corner of Baylis and Morgan streets.
The workshops are open to anyone, but RSVP through [email protected] is required. For more information, visit the bank’s website.
