Cath Mulalley is not your typical scam victim. An intelligent firefighter of many years’ service, she knows how to spot a dodgy text or spam email. But that didn’t stop her falling prey to
a cunning foreign fraudster, thanks in no small part to her bank failing to spot the warning signs. George Block reports.
A Nelson firefighter has sounded the alarm after sophisticated bank scammers swindled her out of most of her pension.
Adding insult to financial injury, staff at her BNZ branch actually helped Cath Mulalley send the $325,000 to the mystery foreign fraudsters without questioning the transfer, or attempting to verify whether the recipient was in fact New York banking giant Citi.
She spoke out to warn others about what she says is a surprising lack of protection or guarantees if you are unfortunate enough to fall victim to a financial con.
Her tragic story comes amid a shocking rise in similar scams.
Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden has revealed scam and fraud case numbers were up 50 per cent in April to June this year compared with the previous quarter.
Scam numbers in the latest quarter were double those of the same time last year, Sladden says.
In Mulalley’s view, the saga begins several years ago when the level of personalised, one-to-one service at her BNZ branch in Nelson began to wane.
“When we first joined BNZ we would go in and sit down at a table with somebody and discuss what our plans were, and they would advise us,” she said.
“You felt…
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