Every year, thousands of Australians are impacted by scams.
From investment scams to invoice scams, they are becoming more sophisticated and have been growing exponentially over the past few years.
It was this sophistication that almost cost NAB customer, Daniel Smith* $25 million.
The scam
Sydney based business banker, Thurston, received a call from a long-time business customer.
“When I picked up the phone and greeted Daniel*, his request was pretty clear,” Thurston said.
“He had received an attractive term deposit rate from who he thought was another reputable bank and called to see if NAB could match. If not, he would take his cash and go.”
The first of many red flags
While the rate was not so extreme as to make Thurston initially suspicious, the fact that the customer was looking to move his $25 million in one transaction was the first red flag.
This is when Thurston called on the expertise of NAB’s Private Wealth banker, Amit and Investment Specialist, Jessi.
“I took a call from Thurston asking if I could investigate a deposit rate his customer received from another bank,” Amit said.
“I gave Jessi from our Private Investments team a call straight away.
“We went through the various pieces of material sent to the customer from the caller only to discover several red flags.”
Spotting the red flags
When Amit and Jessi went through the product material, they noticed several errors including:
- Odd logo placement
- Different ABN (Australian Business Number) to what was listed on the other bank’s official website
- Grammatical errors throughout the documents
- The deposit rate offered to the customer was not listed online
Amit and Jessi concluded that this was a scam and called the customer back within the hour, and the scam was foiled.
Investment scams are consistently among the top five scams NAB customers report. More broadly, the ACCC’s Scamwatch estimates Australians lost $1.5 billion to these scams in the 2022 calendar year.
Tips to spot red flags
