Unfortunately, no matter how vigilant you are, there are still some scams so sophisticated that even the savviest individuals can fall victim to them. Take, for instance, a recent case where a 60-year-old man lost his entire life savings—nearly $150,000—after being targeted by a cunning scammer posing as a representative from his bank in the Philippines.
This serves as yet another stark reminder to always stay on high alert. Scammers are becoming increasingly adept, leveraging advanced tactics, including the integration of AI, to deceive unsuspecting victims.
From The New York Post:
For the last 40 years, Renato Calalang has done nothing but work incredibly hard in all different types of jobs in order to make his life the best it could possibly be.
The 60-year-old has always believed in the importance of saving every penny and that is exactly what he has done for decades in anticipation of a relaxing retirement.
With almost $150,000 sitting in his bank account, Renato felt safe knowing that he and his family would be financially secure in the future once he reached pension age in the near future.
But now all of his dreams have been snatched from under him in one swift move after he opened an email from someone claiming to be from a bank in his native Philippines.
Renato moved to Australia from Manila back in 1986 but still has a lot of extended family back home, some of who he has never even met before.
So when he received an email stating that a relative had passed away and left him some inheritance in their will, he did not think it was totally out of the realm of possibility.
But sadly, opening that email was the worst mistake Renato would ever make.
“I got an email from someone called Steve Golds who said they were the owner of a bank in Manila,” the warehouse worker told News.com.au.
“He said I was entitled to an inheritance of 3.8 million euro and I just needed to provide my details, which I did in my reply.
“He even provided all the documents in relation to who he said was my cousin, there was a death certificate and everything.
“I have a cousin named the same as the person in the documents, so it seemed legitimate.
“But I could not make the transfer to that bank directly, but instead he said their agent in Australia would help me with this.
“So I deposited some funds into a Commonwealth Bank account, which is the same bank that I am with.
“This made me feel like nothing bad could happen, and if something were to go wrong, I thought I would be able to chase up Commonwealth Bank for help.”
“They said I needed to open a bank in the Philippines in order to get my inheritance. But to do this I’d need to deposit some money.
