A distraught university student has broken down into tears after being scammed from all the money in her bank account.
Nineteen-year-old Sarah Towers took to TikTok on Thursday to share her despair after over $3000 was stolen from her last month.
As a young person on minimum wage, she said money is vital.
“Recently, I was scammed out of all my money in my bank account, which is more than $3,000,” Ms. Towers said.
“This money that was taken was my bills money. All my savings, which I was saving for the end of the year, and all the money on my credit card was $2000.”
Ms. Towers explained the thief only had access to her bank account and phone, which they used to pull off the elaborate scam.
“Someh, ow the person who got into my account also had access to my phone and turned off my NetBank notifications, which allowed them to get my NetBank code without me even knowing,” she said.
“They proceeded to recognize their phone in my bank account so they could make authorized transactions.”
Camera Icon19-year-old Sarah Snook lost over $3000 after her bank account was scammed. Instagram/trysarahtops Credit: Supplied
Ms. Towers does not know how the scammer got her information but had an “inkling. It was because Optus gave her phone number to somebody else.
She eventually got a message about suspicious transactions in her bank account from London.
But as sit was too late, he waited to get to the Commonwealth Bank; from there, they say call this number if it’s an unusual authorized transaction, which I did,”.Ms. Towers said.
“I then sat on hold at my bank for an hour and a half, waiting for them to answer so that I could close my account, but the guy at that point had taken all of my money.”
Camera IconSome of the fraudulent payments were made in Sarah Towers’ bank account. Credit: Supplied
The ordeal only ended. Ms—Towersn’s actions when she managed to change her password.
“I tried desperately to get into my account, but you can only be logged in on one phone at a time, so it was a constant battle to log in and change my password,” she said.
“Lucki, ly I could change my PIN so he wouldn’t be able to get in. And then I got locked out because he had tried to type it in many times.
“Only then did my bank close my account to try and stop anything further from happening.? g.”
Ms. Towers was only left with $200 after the attack but waited for over three weeks, hoping her money would be returned after filing a dispute with CommBank.
However, she was shocked when the bank told her the dispute had been unsuccessful.
Camera IconSarah Towers shows the transaction dispute outcome she received from the Commonwealth Bank. Supplied Credit: Supplied
“As you can expect, it’s the worst possible outcome for me,” she said.
“If I don’t pay back my credit card, I think, in four or five days, which is $2000, then I’m going to keep getting and accruing fees because I can’t pay it back.”
A section of the transaction dispute outcome said, “based on our findings, we believe the transactions were either performed by yourself or another person with your consenandor knowledge”.
“It says that basically because I knew what was happening and I allowed it to happen, they’re not going to give me my money back,”.Ms. Snook said.
She can try the Commonwealth Bank for help one final time after putting in a complaint, while she has also filed a report with the police.
But there could be a happy resolution for—Ms—Snook’s story after she posted a subsequent update in the comments.
“Guy, my case manager from the bank, just called me and told me he is going to escalate it (my complaint),” she said.
“Did they see my TikTok?”
