A British scammer has conned an Australian businessman out of $130,000 in a sophisticated text message scam, before boasting about how he was ‘going to take a vacation’ with the money.
The victim, business owner Paul Trefry, has spoken out on 2GB’s Ben Fordham Live to warn others to remain vigilant before it’s too late.
The criminals sent a text message to Mr Trefry from the same number used by ANZ Bank.
It appeared in the same message thread as legitimate text messages from the bank, which made Mr Trefry think it was legitimate.
The text message warned his account had been compromised and he needed to transfer his money over to a new ‘safer’ account, which turned out to be the crooks.
‘I’m running a business and not having a bus credit card makes things very difficult, so the second option was better for me,’ he said.
Scam victim Paul Trefry said the criminal used an ‘over stamping’ technique to make a fake security alert appear in the legitimate text chat with his bank, ANZ, in May
Over the next four days, Mr Trefry sent across $130,000, which was run by the scammers.
A week later, ANZ Bank contacted him to let him know that he had been scammed.
‘They asked me about a transfer of $17,500 into an account and I said ‘well, guys, I’m just following your instructions’ and they said ‘no, we wouldn’t instruct you to transfer money into different accounts’.
‘…He (the ANZ rep) said ‘look, it’s a really elaborate scam which these guys have been doing and they copy ANZ’s protocol to a tee, unfortunately there’s not gonna be a great deal we can do for you’.’
He called for ANZ to do more to alert its customers about current scams.
‘They’ve got a liability to their customers to notify them about this type of thing,’ he said.
‘They’ve known about it for a long period of time.
‘It’s simple to send a text message to your customers saying that this service has been compromised and check the text messages before you do anything.’
ANZ were able to recover some of the money, but Mr Trefry is still $85,000 out of pocket.
A mock up of the scam text messages he received from scammers pretending to be ANZ Bank
Mr Trefry decided to contact the scammers after he’d discovered their theft, who boasted about stealing his money.
‘I think you need to understand that you’ve been robbed for $100,000. It was great dealing with you, Paul,’ the scammer said.
‘Thank you. I’m going to take a vacation very soon.
‘How do you feel about losing 33 per cent of your balance?’
Mr Trefry replied that he felt ‘horrible’ with his admission falling on deaf ears.
‘I’m still happy. We made a profit,’ the scammer said.
‘We bought your details for $20 and then I called you.
‘We just swindled you.’
The conversation took a sinister turn after Mr Trefry told the scammer he was recording their conversation.
‘Who are you going to send your recording to? Which news should I check? Which one? Where do I look for this recording,’ the scammer asked.
‘Enjoy losing your $100,000. I hope your mother has a terrible, terrible death and Mother’s Day becomes an absolutely shocking anniversary for you.
‘I hope it reminds you of the scam and your mother is going to die a horrible, I’m going to sh** on her grave.’
ANZ’s fraud team didn’t contact Mr Trefry about his odd transfers until a week after he received the fake alert, by that point he’d already lost $130,000.
The fake text from the scammers told Paul his ANZ account had been compromised and appeared in the same chat as other legitimate messages from the bank
Mr Trefry is a well-known sculptor who runs the Creature NFX workshop, a business that makes animatronics, models, costumes and props,
He was recently contracted to make models of the kangaroo, unicorn and emus that appeared in an Australian Tourism ad.
He’s now worried he will have to close his business.
‘I don’t know how I can financially get over it,’ he said.
Daily Mail Australia contacted ANZ for comment.
