A mystery £30 payment appeared in my bank account – hours later I lost £23,000 & my bank won’t help me
A DESPERATE mum-of-two has shared how she ended up losing her life savings after a £30 payment appeared on her account.
Beautician Thuy Le has told how she was scammed out of £23,000 but her bank refuses to help her get it back.
The mum has shared her ordeal which began in November last year when she received a call from someone claiming he was the husband of one of her customers.
The caller claimed he had accidentally deposited £30 on her account and wanted it back.
Thuy said she checked her Commonwealth Bank account and indeed there was a £30 payment which she transferred to an account given by the caller.
The following day, she was left in shock when she discovered her entire account had been wiped.
A total of £23,000 had been withdrawn and transferred to the same account the caller had given her even though she had not provided any passwords or personal information.
The mum reported the incident to the CBA bank and was offered £1100 to resolve the dispute.
Thuy is the only provider for her family with her husband being unable to work due to Parkinson’s disease and the pair have two children aged six and 11.
The mum who works at the Sparkle Nails and Beauty salon in Wollongong, NSW, told 7News: “I am in financial hardship.
“I can’t sleep. 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.
“My husband is not working. We need the money for medicine.”
After conducting an investigation the CBA deemed that it was not liable for the woman’s losses as the alleged scam transactions were successful on the first attempt which show that the logins were used which are “nearly impossible for an unauthorised third party to guess”.
They said in a letter: “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.”
The bank added that Thuy had not informed them of the unauthorised transactions quickly enough after logins were made via the app.
“Had you reported the transactions immediately after the login… the chances of successfully recovering some of the funds would have been much higher,” CBA said.
The mum said she was forced to apply for government help and filed a report o the Australian Financial Complaints Authority in a bid to get her money back.
It comes as Android and iPhone users have been urged to check their texts now for a “wrong number mistake” that could cost them.
Another couple in Australia told how they lost their £54,000 life savings after getting a bizarre Uber text.
And this teen worked three jobs to save a £20k house deposit but lost it all during a phone call.