Although we’re constantly told to be on the lookout for scams, sometimes they can be incredibly hard to pick.
Michelle Lowry thought she was investing in government and bank bonds when she lost $750,000 of her life savings.
Lowry was looking online for term deposits when she came across a website for EQR Securities.
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“I checked out that they were a registered company with ASIC and they had an Australian financial securities licence number,” Lowry told A Current Affair.
“I gave the information to my accountant as well … for him to verify the legitimacy of the purchase of the bonds and the company.”
In December, Lowry went to her local bank and tele-transferred her money to an account provided.
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Lowry said she had communication with what she thought was the company buying bonds on her behalf and after believing she’d received funds, she logged into the online portal once to find her receipts but couldn’t get back in after that.
“I kept asking for Will Hughes – which was the name of the man at EQR Securities I was dealing with,” she said.
Another woman, Jody Bridges, who A Current Affair interviewed in May, lost $500,000 in a similar scam.
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Bridges claimed she was also duped by a man with a British accent named “Will Hughes”.
Lowry said after she tried to call…
