New support system helps older Aussies who have fallen victim to scams
A new support system has been set up to help vulnerable older Australians who have fallen victim to dangerous scams.
With millions of Aussies targeted every year, many of these targets are elderly with 30 percent of victims hesitant to come forward because they are too embarrassed to admit what's happened to them.
One such victim, 86-year-old Mary, said she was humiliated after falling for a scam saying she is old enough to know better.
"It serves me right, I shouldn't have been so trusting," she said.
"You blame yourself and you don't really want to tell people how stupid you are, so you think, 'Well, I'll just have to bear it'."
Mary was scammed when she received a call from a man pretending to be a technician, saying he needed access to her computer to resolve a problem in her area.
Step by step, the "technician" got Mary to log-in and give him complete access to her entire online identification, completely cleaning her out of $20,000 in savings.
This is why ID Support NSW is now offering a free service to help older Australians be able to protect themselves online and spot suspicious activity.
"The most common scams are romance and impersonation scams, where people pretend to be someone they're not," ID Support NSW's Jacqueline Wilson told Today.
"Most start with a text or call and once someone responds or engages, they usually end up losing money."
Jacqueline said the best thing you could do if you even suspect a scammer was to just hang up the phone, saying, "You don't need to indulge them, you don't need to be polite, you don't need to engage in a long conversation."
Image credits: Today