You can’t fix stupid. This morning’s crybaby ignored a number of red flags because she was determined to collect her lottery prize money of US$200,000.

When it all turned to tears whom did she blame? The bank of course!

The first red flag was that she had not purchased a lottery ticket.

The second red flag was that in order to collect her prize, she had to first send NZ$80,000 of her own money overseas.

The third massive red flag was that her bank declined one of her transfers of cash.

She chose to ignore her bank’s suspicions and went to another bank to send the money overseas. It was after she had done this that she finally realised that it was a scam.

She then compounded her mistake further.

She engaged an “online recovery” company to help her get the money back – but eventually found this operated in much the same way as the scammers.

She told the ombudsman in her complaint that the bank should have sought a chargeback.

The bank attempted to recall the funds but was unsuccessful. It declined to compensate her for her losses but made a goodwill payment of $1600. She maintained the bank should have stopped all payments.

The bank that she is blaming was completely deceived by her as she deliberately lied to them about the payment. The fact that she had been told by the scammers to lie to her bank was yet another big red flag that she ignored.

“We discovered [she] had not told the bank she was sending funds to claim a lottery prize. She said the fraudster had coached her to not tell the bank why she was sending the funds overseas and acknowledged she did not give the bank correct information,” the ombudsman’s office said in a case note.

[…] She had also been questioned about the first transfer because it was unusual. The bank staff knew she ran a wedding planning business and were shown photos of venues.

“It was not until the fourth transfer that her story became inconsistent and the bank declined to move the money,” the case note said.

stuff.co.nz

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