OPINION
Does scamming apply in politics? The Covid scam is a prime example. We were required to believe what we were being told, and obliged to act in a way that benefitted the government (the scammers). Many of us have been left with empty wallets, our employment stolen awaybecause we did not fall for the scam. And we feel emotionally vulnerable – will they do this all again with yet another scam?
And looking at scams of a more general nature, how is it that scammers are so much smarter than those on the development end of online security services? And how come we are the dummies at the end of the line, at the mercy of everyone who wants to help themselves to our money and is tech-sophisticated enough to do so?
This week I have had two cards compromised, one by someone in Munich, and there are four pending payments on my debit card, that the bank refuses to do anything about until the payments have all gone through and I am then required to raise a dispute with that bank. A visit to said bank, while payments were pending, resulted in no assistance at all. I was simply told to contact them with a dispute once the payments had gone through and to do it all online. An online ‘chat’ with a bot advised contacting a human and provided a telephone number, which I am unable to use because I am profoundly deaf. They do offer accessibility assistance but the link refused to open and so the ever-helpful bot advised I speak to a human to access that link. Having previously attempted to do that in person at the bank I am trapped in a circular argument and going nowhere.
As soon as I saw the pending payments I cancelled my card and so now am able to access any funds only thanks to helpful others. The total amount to be forcibly stolen from my account despite my request for assistance is in the vicinity of $100 and so is not huge, but that is not the problem; the bank is the problem. Their refusal to help is one issue; the other is that they allow scammers to breach the ramparts and steal money at will.
The credit card problem was as a result of an online purchase through a company I have previously dealt with and with whom I have an account. All well and good, the transaction went through as normal, the ‘thank you for your order’ screen appeared as normal, but then it appears the url was redirected and so the receipt came through – sadly, not normal, and so another $120 has gone. Another card cancelled. I have now run out of cards. I have also run out of patience with the whole online way of life.
I am careful, I do all the things we are told to do to avoid being scammed – but how come we have to do that? If the scammers are smart enough to work around security measures presumably built into development, then why are the developers not smart enough to build secure platforms? I do check – but it seems there is no organisation able to compete with scamming smarts. I recently received a rego payment demand online from Waka Kotahi – and checked prior to see if there was a scam operating, as I was sure I had paid it already, and yes, yet another scam in operation.
Online systems are too open to sabotage and we pay dearly for that in every which way. What are they going to take from me tomorrow? The next day? How is it that someone from the airport operating company in Munich can put through four transactions on the same day on my debit card and have those payments upheld by my bank and I have no rights over my account?
I have not been careless with my cards. No one has my passwords. I have not responded to dodgy deals. I have not fallen victim to phoney cops’ visits or responded to telephone scammers – sometimes I am lucky I am profoundly deaf as I am unable to use a telephone and so avoid any untoward approaches in that way. I do not answer the door to strangers as I do not hear a knock at the door. I check for scams on a regular basis. But who can we trust now with this digital piracy? No one. Where does that leave us? At the mercy of bandits. Why is it that so many organisations are vulnerable to the scammer scenario?
And given a pending payment that is patent theft, as in the case of my German experience, how is it that the bank is unable or unwilling to intervene? A recent case in Canberra saw a grieving widower relieved of $10,000 in two transactions, through two banks. One bank stopped the payment, the other, ANZ, would not. It all came down to the fact that they would not disadvantage the merchant. Well, that is all well and good – for the merchant. Just too bad about the customer defrauded. So, if one bank is able to intervene, why can others not – or will not?
On checking his account, the man, from Canberra, found that he found an unknown thief had spent $10,000 of his in the Middle East, in Kuwait.
“Great Southern Bank was able to quickly put a stop to the transactions. However, ANZ allegedly refused to cancel the two $2,676.19 transactions that were taken from the account – despite both still ‘pending’ when the man discovered them. He claims ANZ staff said they would only be able to begin investigating the case once the transfers were cleared from the account. When asked why the bank couldn’t stop the stolen money from leaving the account, its reason was it ‘couldn’t disadvantage the merchant’, he said. (Emphasis added.) ‘They stayed pending for five days. All I could do was wait until the funds left my account. I went back and forth with ANZ for the whole five days,’ the man said. He described the bank’s eventual investigation as ‘six weeks of hell’ and lodged a complaint, which was later withdrawn, with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. In the end, the Canberran’s funds were fully recovered but he was never told how the thieves managed to get hold of his bank details.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12326797/Canberra-man-5-000-dollars-stolen-Kuwait-banking-scam-ANZ-account.html
He was disadvantaged. The merchant was not. And we used to say that crime didn’t pay – what a trusting, naïve world we lived in – and how much safer our money was.
Are QR codes safe? No. Despite the hype and increasing usage, e.g. cafes with tabletop ordering and payment, these data collection codes are not safe, leaving us vulnerable to phishing, straight-out theft, bugs that allow users to be directed to completely different sites, malware attacks etc.
And it is not only direct financial scamming that is causing grief and distress. There is also identity theft. The use of photographs in online dating website trolling. The use of celebrity endorsement for goods and services. We have no protection, and thousands of scammers are laughing all the way to the bank as they pick our pockets.
Banks are fair-weather friends, we all know that, but allowing our funds to be stolen is just wrong. Pending payments in Kuwait as in the case of the Canberran or in Munich in my case are bank-enabled theft and the bank owes me my money. I entrust them to look after it, and when there is an outside attack on my account they do nothing to help, despite hefty bank fees. What am I paying for exactly?
It is all indeed a scam.