"I felt duped": 95-year-old loses $1.6 million in bank scam
A 95-year-old has been left feeling "sick" after she was scammed out of $1.6 million by heartless scammers claiming to be a bank.
In November last year, Harriet Spring received a call from a man who called himself George Thompson, and said he worked for ING Bank.
The man gained Harriet's trust over several months, at the difficult time that the great-grandmother was handling the sale of her mother's house.
"Over time, I completely thought he was from ING, I had no reason to believe he wasn't," she told Today.
"George" then convinced Harriet the money from the sale of the house could build interest in an ING account, but it was actually being held by Westpac Bank.
"It sounds implausible now, but the scammer had me convinced and I told my mother's bank, Teachers Mutual Bank, that this was an ING fixed term deposit, but it was being put in the Westpac bank," she said.
"I put down the BSB number and the account number and what I thought was my name attached to the account, (my mother's bank) pointed out that it seems strange and ING account would be held with Westpac, but they still went ahead and authorised the transfer."
When Harriet realised the scammers had taken hold of her life savings totalling $1.6 million, she felt "sick".
"Obviously my world just fell out from under me - I just felt sick," she said.
"I felt utterly responsible, I felt duped, foolish, ashamed - a lot of shame associated with it and I think that's why a lot of people don't come forward and talk about this kind of thing."
Harriet has shared her story as a warning for others to be wary of potential scammers, while also calling on banks to have better protocols in place to stop suspicious transactions from going through.
"Someone with basic training from the bank would have known that ING don't bank with any other banks and they should have flagged it," she said.
"I believe the reality is that the banks 100 per cent put the blame on the victims and they minimise their own liability."
"There should be some sort of system for compensating victims, the banks don't commit the theft, but they certainly drive the getaway car and they need to be held responsible for being complicit with this."
Image credits: Today