When Laura* received a call from NAB Bank telling her that her bank account had been compromised, she immediately leapt into action.
But the person on the other end of the line was not trying to help Laura at all.
The scammer instructed Laura to download software and transfer nearly $5000 to secure the money in her account — totalling approximately $120,000 in savings.
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As Laura started making transfers, NAB’s fraud system triggered an alert on the transactions.
The payment had sent up red flags — including indications that her laptop was being remotely accessed.
NAB’s fraud assist analyst Jimmy Nguyen immediately called Laura as he suspected this was a remote access scam.
“We use biometrics technology as part of our fraud system, and the first red flag for us was an alert telling us her screen was either being shared with someone or accessed remotely,” Nguyen said.
“The criminals had convinced Laura to download software, which allowed them to access her device remotely.
“They told her she needed the application so that they could walk her through how to make a payment to secure her account.
“But, once they were in her device, they were spying on her activity.
“It’s really concerning when this happens. Your banking activity and logins are for your eyes only.”
Nguyen knew within minutes of speaking to Laura that “something was up”.
At first, Laura changed her story multiple times and told Nguyen it was a private and confidential matter at the request of a NAB banker.
It sounded like she had been coached to give those answers, he said.
“I told Laura NAB would never call her and ask her to do anything that could compromise her security, like sharing a one-time PIN, transferring money to another account, giving us remote access to your devices or providing personal information.”
NAB’s Fraud team then temporarily blocked Laura’s account to ensure criminals could not steal her money.
“There was a risk that the criminals could access Laura’s account and transfer her life savings of $120,000 to their account,” Nguyen said.
A week later, Laura called NAB’s fraud team back.
“Once Laura had time to process what we’d spoken about the penny dropped, and she realised she was being scammed,” Nguyen said.
“She called our team back to report the incident.
“She was grateful we helped secure the account so the criminals couldn’t access it.”
Protecting customers a priority
Laura’s story highlights the combination of technology investments and dedicated bankers working together to keep customers safe, NAB Executive of Group Investigations Chris Sheehan said.
“NAB continues to invest in scam prevention and detection to keep customers safe,” Sheehan, a former Australian Federal Police executive, said.
“We’re starting to see some positive signs from this work with customer losses down 17 per cent between October 2023 and March 2024, compared to the previous six months.
“Initiatives to detect scams include behavioural biometric technology as part of our fraud engine, which can help us see and hold payments in real time and payment alerts in the NAB app and internet banking.
“We also have more than 500 experts in our fraud, scams and investigations teams working on the problem and supporting our customers day and night.“
Sheehan said criminals were masters at manipulating people’s emotions and creating a sense of fear or urgency.
“Their goal is to pressure the person to act quickly and share personal details or make a payment themselves,” he said.
“That’s why it’s so important to be vigilant.
“Just like Jimmy advised Laura, if you aren’t sure if it’s NAB calling you, hang up and call back yourself using the number on the back of your bank card or via searching it on our public website.”