UK-based fraudsters posing as police and bank officials have targeted elderly people on Australia’s Gold Coast in a phone scam that has fleeced individual victims of up to $200,000, police allege.
Queensland police have revealed details of an alleged ruse in which victims in their 70s and 80s were persuaded to transfer life savings to the UK after being warned their bank accounts and credit cards were under threat from thieves.
Eight people living on the Gold Coast – which has a reputation of being both Australia’s retirement and cold calling fraud capital – had fallen prey to what appeared to be “an elaborate scam coming out of the United Kingdom”, Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Garrett said.
The scam was first reported to police last month when a Bundall woman, 84, lost $84,000. Victims to emerge since include an 89-year-old woman from Tallebudgera, who lost more than $200,000.
Police said the victims were set up with a series of phone calls over time, beginning with a cold call from a man claiming to be a police officer, a business manager or a fraud investigator from an Australian bank.
The victims were led to believe police and their bank were investigating attempts by thieves to access their accounts or cards, police said.
The scammers remained on the phone line as victims hung up, then pretended to pick up calls that victims believed they were making to their banks, Garrett said.
The alleged scam culminates in the bogus bank fraud investigator telling the retirees they must complete emergency transfers of funds to a “safe account” registered in the UK.
Garrett said investigators knew little about how the victims were selected “but the common thread is they’re being contacted on home telephones and they’re all elderly residents”.
“To date over half a million dollars have been obtained by these offenders so they’re getting quite polished at this,” he said.
Queensland police were working with Australian federal police in London, Garrett said. At least two male offenders were involved, one with an apparent British accent.
Investigators were also relying heavily on banks to trace the funds so police could recover what they could, Garrett said.
“The impact of these offences is devastating on these people,” he said.
“Often it’s their life savings, they’re acting in good faith, they think they’re following police instructions or banking institution advice.
“Unfortunately for these victims they’ve been tricked and the money’s going offshore. And once that occurs it’s very difficult for us to recover their funds for them.
“It really is a disgusting offence committed on elderly vulnerable people.”
