The doctor reported the scam to her bank’s fraud office and the police straight away, while they worked to figure out what happened to Baswati’s money.
The three weeks that followed were horrible.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said.
She told Newshub an investigation by her bank found the money had been transferred to an unknown account in Australia, but the bank could only retrieve $123.
Luckily for Baswati, her bank refunded her money in full.
She told Newshub she felt lucky to be on a salary that makes living comfortable – but said if she didn’t, she would have struggled.
“I was just thinking of people who don’t actually have that security, it’ll be a very sad situation for them.”
Baswati considers herself to be tech-savvy and said what happened to her “can happen to anybody”. She told Newshub the experience has left her traumatised.
“I have become so careful, I do not click on anything that gets sent to me now.”
She is urging Kiwis to be extra vigilant so they don’t end up in the same boat as her.
“Don’t click any links, I have learnt it the hard way… We need to stop these messages – delete them when you receive them.”
Phishing scams increasing at ‘alarming rate’
Acting Manager response at CERT NZ, Jordan Heersping, told Newshub phishing, also known as ‘smishing’, has increased at an “alarming rate”.
“Users are sent a short message and a link. The message will use social engineering triggers of urgency, fear, and opportunity to illicit a…
