Cruel scam targets radio star's elderly mum
<p>Radio star Bianca Dye has revealed that her elderly mother was the target of a cruel scam. </p>
<p>The <em> i98 </em>radio host told <em>9Honey</em> that her mother, Anne, was at home when she received a series of texts from someone pretending to be her. </p>
<p>The first text Anne received claimed that Dye was using a friends phone, before "they sent something about me needing help with an urgent tax bill."</p>
<p>At the time, Dye was in Wollongong in NSW hosting the breakfast shift, when her mother received the <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">"urgent tax bill"</span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> text requesting $3,000. </span></p>
<p>"When parents get older, they don't want to bother you. She didn't want to stress me out," she added, fighting back tears. </p>
<p>"But by not contacting me the day it happened and waiting until the next day, she had worked herself up into tears. She didn't sleep a wink."</p>
<p>"So she was sending text messages to some stranger."</p>
<p>By the time Anne rang her daughter, she was trying to transfer the money, but got the credit card number confused. </p>
<p>Fortunately, Dye had a friend check in on her mum, who was able to take Anne to her local branch for help. </p>
<p>"They got it all sorted, changed her PIN, no money had been taken out," Dye said. </p>
<p>While it was a close call for Dye many Australians, particularly the elderly, are common targets for scammers. </p>
<p>Dye hopes to raise awareness of such scams and spoke with cyber security expert Damien Cantelo of Apollo Secure who shared a few safety tips. </p>
<p>"Certainly [parents] should take the approach of 'trust no one, assume nothing', because if it's a text message or a call, [scammers] are getting more sophisticated so it's harder to detect," Cantelo said.</p>
<p>"A really good tip is to set up a 'safe word'. So you and your family have a word, you just make up a random word.</p>
<p>"And if ever there's anything a little bit fishy going on, you can say, 'Oh, hey Bianca, what's the safe word?' And then if you don't have it, then they know to hang up."</p>
<p>Dye added that as scams get more intricate, it may be more difficult for older people, especially those who may suffer from memory loss, to detect the scams. </p>
<p>"It's a terrifying future for the elderly unless someone tech savvy is living in the house with them," Dye added.</p>
<p><em>Image: Bianca Dye/ 9Honey</em></p>
