Auckland man conned out of $30,000 in sophisticated phone scam

Friday, 2 March 2018

An Auckland man is speaking out to warn others of phone scams after he was conned out of almost $30,000.

An Auckland man, conned out of almost $30,000, is warning others of a phone scam so sophisticated it broke through even his most 'skeptical defences'.

The scam happened a week after John Calkin, a retired North Shore teacher, had fibre optic internet installed in December.

He had been expecting a follow up call and when it came, it sounded just like the people who had installed it.

John Calkin wants to warn others of highly sophisticated phone scams, after being conned out of $30,000

The man called himself Eric, and said he was a technician at Spark.

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Calkin said he had shut down many scam attempts in the past, but there was something different about this one: 'They knew so much information about me.'

He knew the 76-year-old's name, his address, and the fact that he had upgraded his Spark connection. 'It was enough to take the edge off my vigilance.'

The scammer asked the retiree to check his modem and once he did, the scammer said there were 'concerning irregularities', meaning his internet connection was highly insecure.

He asked Calkin for permission to take remote control of his computer screen through the program TeamViewer - a legitimate tool by businesses for tech support purposes.

But that raised red flags.

'I said 'how do I know this isn't a scam?', he said 'here is my office number and here is my technician's registration number,' Calkin said.

'At that stage I should have hung up and rung it, but I didn't, and gave him benefit of the doubt, thinking the fact that he offered it was a pretty positive sign that it was genuine.'

From there the scammer said that because his connection was insecure, hackers could have details to all his financial information, personal information and email.

He instructed Calkin to log into internet banking and email accounts to 'secure them'.

Each time Calkin complied, the scammer noted the information and siphoned off three sums of money - $9850, $9970 and $9988, but not before instructing Calkin to turn off his mobile phone.

'He said once we start this process your system will not be particularly secure and you'll get spammed out of existence, even on your phone.'

Calkin had to go to a medical appointment - and came back later.

The scammer called him back and advised him that while he was away hackers were trying to take money out of his account and it was frozen, and he needed to call the bank and un-freeze it.

The bank wouldn't unfreeze it over the phone - he had to visit the bank in person.

'It was about that time the line when dead and the bank started calling me, the bank's fraud investigation person said said I'm very sorry to have to tell you but you've had about $30,000 stolen from your bank account.

'I guess I was in shock … I was in shock, I couldn't believe I'd been so dumb.'

The bank managed to recover two lots of $10,000 but Calkin didn't have high hopes for the final lot.

'The moment it was transferred to an account, within 10 seconds it had been taken out to another account.'

Apparently, the rest of the money was whisked to an overseas bank, which had their own jurisdiction and security protocols.

The bank said there were even four more attempts to drain his account after the scam phone call ended.

'I was feeling pretty ashamed and embarrassed, I felt I've let my wife down and let us both down but I forced myself to talk through it.

'It coincided with my expectation of a Spark follow up call and that was just enough take the edge of my vigilance.'

Spark's communications advisor Lydia Tebbutt said there has been an increase in scammers pretending to be from well-known companies like Spark, other telcos or banks to trick or intimidate people into handing over personal information, or allowing access to their personal computers.

'These fraudsters often monitor corporate activity and mimic their methods of communication, so it can be difficult for customers to tell the difference between what's genuine and fake.

'The most important thing to remember is Spark will never call customers out of the blue to ask for personal details like bank account, credit card, or internet banking details or to request access to your personal computer or laptop.'

She said that if people received an unexpected call from someone claiming to be from Spark who asks for something of this nature, end the call immediately.

'You can always get in touch with us via the number and chat options on our website to check if the call was legitimate or not, or If you think you may have handed over personal information to a scammer, phone your bank immediately.

Calkin wanted to warn Kiwis to always be suspicious, and check the caller's details.

'This was such a sophisticated scam compared to any of the others I had encountered.

'Say to the person, this is very interesting, but before I proceed, can you give me the number for your head office. If they won't give you a number then don't proceed, and if they do give you a number, hang up and ring it.'

Tebbutt said falling victim to a scam is an absolutely awful thing to experience and sharing that story is not an easy thing to do.

'But, the more people hear these stories and are warned about this kind of activity, the more guarded they can be. Full credit to Mr Calkin for sharing his story and warning others – it's a very brave of him.'

Tebbutt said Spark customers can visit their website or email scamhelp@spark.co.nz for more details on phone scamming.