We lost our entire £54,000 life savings after getting bizarre ‘Uber’ text – but reaction from our bank was even WORSE
A COUPLE lost their entire life savings because of a single text message.
James Green and Sarah Gerendasi, from Victoria, Australia, were duped out of £54,000 after being targeted by scammers.
Fraudsters sent James a message claiming to be from Uber, asking him to update his payment details.
But when James clicked the link in the text, it gave scammers access to his correspondence with his bank – Westpac.
After intercepting messages, the fraudsters were then able to send James texts that appeared to come from the bank.
The scammers – posing as Westpac – convinced the couple to transfer their $98,000 (£54,000) savings to a “safer” account.
James and Sarah were then left reeling when they realised they could not longer access their cash.
They quickly contacted Westpac, which told them the bank was not at fault as James clicked the link.
He told 9News: “Ultimately Westpac take no responsibility for that and just say, basically that we shouldn’t have done what we did.
“I just would like to see some sort of acknowledgment that they will work on it, it’s going to be an issue going forward for sure.
“We purchased our first home and we lost close to $100,000.
“That money was there to pay off our mortgage and it makes a massive difference to lose that.”
Westpac has offered to compensate them $3,000 (£1,600).
Sarah blasted: “It’s offensive, $3,000 isn’t going to change anything.”
James added: “We’re working with a government agency to mediate conversations, but even they’ve said we can only really push for about $5000.
“So we’re not getting anywhere close to what we’ve lost.”
The Sun Online has contacted Westpac for comment.
It comes after a teenager who worked three jobs to save up for a house deposit by the time she turned 18 lost it all in seconds during a phone call.
Aurora Casilli got her first job when she was 14 and spent years saving every penny she possibly could to buy her own home.
At one stage, she was working three different jobs to add to her savings pot.
But Aurora, from Albany in Western Australia, lost all her cash after she was duped by a scammer.
She said she now “has nothing to her name” after all her years of hard work.