Brisbane couple Scott and Danielle White had worked hard to accumulate their life savings — which took just seconds to disappear during the global tech outage last week. A scammer impersonating Bendigo Bank was already logged into Scott’s internet banking account when he phoned on Saturday asking for one detail — before stealing $98,000. Scott, 38, and Danielle, 34, had intended to use that money for IVF to start a family, and also to keep their beloved dog Nala’s tail wagging during her final months living with an aggressive cancer.
The panic set in immediately after the call ended but Scott said community support has sustained them — financially and emotionally — as they try to recoup their funds. “I got a call that I did believe to be from Bendigo Bank because of the credentials he gave me,” Scott told 7NEWS.com.
au. The scammer told Scott someone had tried to use his credit card interstate, and the call would purportedly “put a stop to it all”. Scott’s password had already been changed before the call, so when the scammer asked Scott to log in with new details the red flags did not go unnoticed.
“It all seemed really weird, so I asked him to tell me what my last two transactions were and he did,” Scott said. “Then he asked me for my access ID, which you can only see when you’re inside the account. “I said ‘I’m not going to give that to you because you could be a scammer, why don’t you read it to me’ — and he did.
” Scott, still un.