Man’s relief at recovering $55,000 after being scammed

A DUNEDIN man who recovered $55,000 he had transferred to scammers says he probably would have had to sell his house if he had not got the money back.

The man, who does not want to be named, received a call earlier this week from scammers pretending to be from Spark, telling him hackers were using his internet connection to launder money.

The scammers told him they were working with Interpol to catch the hackers, and wanted his help to catch them.

The 55yearold victim, who describes himself as a ‘‘technodinosaur’’, said he did not suspect he was being scammed, because the lie was so ‘‘sophisticated and realistic’’.

The scammers were able to gain access to his bank account and move money around so it looked as though they had deposited money into his account. They asked him to go the bank and transfer it to an account in Hong Kong so they could trace the hackers’ movements.

After transferring the money, the man decided to check his bank account despite a warning from the scammers not to log into it.

It was then he realised his own money had been taken.

Thankfully, the man’s bank kept international transfers in a queue before clearing them, so his payment had not gone through.

‘‘I’m so ecstatic that it’s been able to be retrieved.’’

The man had payments to meet for kitchen renovations and his mortgage, and owed money to IRD.

‘‘I probably would have had to sell our property,’’ he said. — NZME