Elderly widow fleeced of $100,000 in Facebook hacking scam, family furious at ASB bank

A vulnerable 84-year-old widow lost more than $100,000 after scammers hacked her elderly friend’s Facebook account and convinced the victim to send money to unlock an imaginary Covid-19 subsidy payment.

And though ASB eventually identified the fraud after the pensioner had made 13 international money transfers, none of the funds have been recovered and her family are furious bank staff did not alert relatives or police.

They accuse ASB of failing in its duty of care by not flagging the woman’s highly unusual pattern of transactions as suspicious.

However, ASB has refused liability and says its actions did not contribute to the loss.

It said the woman authorised the transactions, telling staff she knew who was receiving the money and was confident she wasn’t being scammed.

The bank was acting on her instructions not to alert family or police.

“We had to respect her wishes.”

In February, the woman received a message from someone she’d met at a club for elderly people, saying, “There’s a Covid payment, if you click on this link you qualify”.

The friend’s account had been hacked.

The woman then swapped more than 200 Facebook messages and emails with the scammers, who were posing as her friend, as well as an “accountant” she thought was helping her to access the Covid subsidy.

Between February and June this year, she wired more than $100,000 overseas in 13 cash transfers to three separate Australian accounts, each under different names. She made all the payments in person at her local West Auckland ASB branches with the assistance of ASB staff.

The final seven payments, totalling more than $50,000, were made in the space of just 20 days.

And despite ASB finally identifying the fraud in late June and freezing the woman’s online accounts, her daughter-in-law Kim Weston says no one from ASB reported the fraud to family or police.

Relatives only learned the octogenarian had been fleeced by chance two months later when they were going through her bank statements, by which time the money trail had gone cold.

The woman was now embarrassed, “sheepish” and refusing to discuss the scam.

“We said, ‘Why didn’t you pick up the phone and ask questions’,” Weston said.

“She wouldn’t tell us very much at all.

“She’s 84, she’s obviously in denial and doesn’t think she’s done anything wrong. You’d think ASB would have contacted someone.

“If the bank had contacted the family we may have been able to recover the funds.”

On learning of the scam, Weston - who is a signatory on her mother-in-law’s account - contacted ASB and was told the case had been escalated to the bank’s fraud department.

But despite efforts to recall the money, nothing has been recovered.

Weston was still shocked that no one alerted authorities.

“If I didn’t find the evidence we still wouldn’t have known.

“That’s what we can’t understand. Why didn’t anyone contact the family or file a police report? But nothing happened. It’s bizarre.”

ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt.

After Weston reported the fraud, police launched an immediate investigation which included contacting Australian police through Interpol.

New South Wales police have now identified the recipient bank accounts and are working to trace those responsible.

However, in an email this week, NSW criminal investigations said the months-long delay in reporting the fraud meant the cash was likely long gone.

“Often when the money hits the account in these sorts of investigations it will either be withdrawn or transferred through multiple different accounts, sometimes opened through ID theft.

“Also unfortunately as these transactions happened a few months ago, CCTV expires and we are often chasing behind the money trail which also makes it more difficult.”

Australian police added that unfortunately “banks often like to wash their hands of these sorts of matters”.

Weston complained to ASB, alleging the bank had failed her elderly relative, who lives alone and has banked with ASB for 60 years.

She asked why ASB’s fraud prevention systems didn’t flag the 13 transactions as unusual, especially given the victim had never made an international money transfer before.

In a final response letter last week, ASB said it was not liable for the loss.

Bank staff had questioned the woman ahead of each transfer to verify they were legitimate, that she knew the person receiving the money, was confident it was “not part of an elaborate scam”, and that if it was the money would likely be lost.

There was nothing in her responses that raised suspicion about the transfers, the bank said.

ASB acknowledged the woman had not sent money overseas before and said there was no ability for banks to match account numbers and names when sending money to another bank.

The fraud was detected when a new teller sought advice about the final transaction from a manager, who became suspicious about the pattern of money transfers. The manager eventually froze the woman’s online banking and alerted ASB’s fraud department.

When questioned by staff, the woman said “she had made payments like this in the past, and that the funds were to help a friend”.

She later told a fraud investigator “the payments were to assist family living overseas”.

As the woman had authorised the transactions and the bank had taken immediate steps to try to recover the funds, ASB was not liable.

In a statement last night, ASB said it took fraud losses seriously, investigating heavily in sophisticated preventative technology, and sympathised with the family.

It had moved quickly to stop further money transfers after concerns emerged that its customer had been scammed.

“Our fraud investigation team contacted the customer, encouraging her to speak to family in New Zealand and report the matter to the police. The customer advised she did not want to discuss it with family or report the matter to police at that time, but may do so when she felt ready.

“This customer was entitled to make decisions about her banking without these being discussed with family members, and as her bank, we had to respect her wishes.”

Waitematā CIB Detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Bunting said police had now referred the matter to Australian authorities and forwarded evidence obtained in New Zealand.

Asked if it would have been prudent for ASB to immediately report the fraud to police, Bunting said: “If an agency or person is concerned about a matter which requires police involvement, it would be appropriate for that person or agency to refer the matter to police.

“It would be inappropriate for police to comment further on a specific bank’s practice or protocol.”