Scammers almost trick way to $70k

A man who lost $70,000 to scammers who convinced him tellers at his bank could be trying to hack him, has now been saved — by the bank.

Thanks to Kiwibank’s policy of putting international transfers into a temporary holding system, the Dunedin man stopped the money going out when he realised it was a scam.

There has been a sharp increase in scams in recent weeks, said Cathy Empson, director of mobile computer support company Geeks on Wheels.

“We would expect to get usually about 200 calls a month, which still seems high, but that number has doubled in the past couple of weeks.”

Scammers call victims and “warn” about people trying to hack bank accounts.

The scammers say they have transferred money into the victim’s account and ask them to transfer it to an overseas account to help catch the fictional hackers.

In the process the scammers gain access to victims’ computers and capture bank account passwords.

Scammers tell victims to “play it cool” at the bank so they won’t raise tellers’ suspicions.

The Dunedin man was one of the most recent victims.

He told Geeks on Wheels on Tuesday he had lost $70,000.

A technician working on his case yesterday confirmed the bank was able to hold onto the money long enough for the man to find out he had been scammed.

He has recovered the money. A Christchurch woman lost $20,000 to the scam on Friday.