Yarragon man scammed out of $19,000

A Yarragon man is urging West Gippslanders to be aware of phone and email scams after he was scammed out of $19,000 last week.

While admitting it was his “own stupid fault,” the man urged others to take care with banking information and who they disclosed information to.

The man, who regularly donates man to charity organisations, said it was not unusual for him to receive phone calls from unknown numbers.

On Thursday, he received a phone call notifying him of an Amazon Prime credit he was entitled to receive.

While the man had not previously placed orders with Amazon Prime, he had used Amazon.

The man was given tele-options during the call and because he had not shopped with Amazon Prime previously, he hit the delete option.

However, he was then transferred to a person who requested credit card details and remote access to his computer.

The man said the process continued over Thursday and Friday, during which time $19,000 was stolen from three accounts.

“Stupidly I gave access to my accounts…which opened the world,” he said.

The offender was able to access the man’s Commonwealth Bank accounts.

He has reported the scam and loss of money to Commonwealth Bank in Warragul, who said they averaged two customers a day losing money to scams.

While realising he may not have the money refunded because of his mistake, the man said the bank was investigating it further to at least shut down the scam.

The man said he should’ve realised earlier than he did that the man was transferring money from his accounts.

He said it was important to alert people to the tactics scammers were using, especially when providing remote access through Team Viewer.

ScamWatch advises people to never give an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer; and never give personal, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and the phone number came from a trusted source.

ScamWatch data shows in April this year, 1149 people were victims of remote access scams, at a total loss of $1,016,211.