A DEVASTATING CLICK: HOW AN EMAIL SCAM CAN COST YOU YOUR LIFE SAVINGS

It’s a story that’s becoming increasingly too common. A 60-year-old warehouse worker named Renato Calalang received an email notification informing him that a distant relative, a cousin in Calalang’s native Philippines, had passed away and left him a significant inheritance.

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The emailer, who claimed to represent the owner of a bank in the Philippines where the money was being kept for Calalang, supplied intricate details as proof.

“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.”

Unfortunately, the documents, the inheritance and everything else about the emailer’s story turned out to be false.

Keep reading for a look at this devastating story of how an unsuspecting husband and father who had worked hard all his life to provide for his family and save for retirement is now left with no savings – and also find out what you can do to avoid being taken in by a similar scam.

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The High Cost of Falling for an Email Scam

Calalang had his life’s savings drained from his bank account before he realized he was being conned. He had emigrated to Australia in 1986 and pursued work as a laborer and in different professions for the last 40 years, living there with his wife and children and steadily setting money aside for his retirement.

He had seen some measure of success and had set aside nearly $150,000, which he counted on as a nest egg to care for his family and himself after retirement. Now, after all that work, Calalang has almost nothing to show for it.

He still has extensive family ties in the Philippines, so he wasn’t suspicious when he received an email from someone calling themselves “Steve Golds” who claimed to be the owner of a bank in the Philippines where the money, €3.8 million — over $400 million – was being held for him after the death of a cousin who had named Calalang as a benefactor in his will.

The emailer said there was one condition Calalang had to fulfill in order to receive the money. He had to open an account at the bank and deposit funds into it.

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Failing To Recognize Red Flags of Financial Fraud

“Steve Golds” told Calalang that he couldn’t make the transfer from his existing bank account but instead had to work with an agent of the Philippines bank to facilitate the process. The scammer provided intricate details like a copy of a death certificate as “proof” of the legitimacy of the inheritance.

The con artist instructed Calalang to open a second account at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, where Calalang already had his hard-earned money deposited in a savings account. This was the first red flag that Calalang, and many others like him, failed to notice.

Calalang made the required transfer of funds, feeling secure that since he was already a customer of the same bank, he could turn to CBA for assistance.

“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.”

Over the next few months, Calalang continued to deposit money into the account as instructed and even spoke with “Steve Golds” at a number in the Netherlands. There were several red flags here that may have helped Calalang realize he was being defrauded had he recognized them in time.

Too Little, Too Late

Looking back, Calalang said he now sees the obvious signs of a scam, but at the time, he felt secure in working with the soft-spoken, apparently sincere “Golds” in recovering his unexpected windfall inheritance. He thought the money would give him and his family a comfortable, worry-free life. Calalang expected the $400 million to be transferred into the second CBA account he had opened, but it never happened.

When the scammer had all but drained his account and the inheritance funds had yet to start arriving from the bank in the Philippines, Calalang realized he had been tricked. He notified the police, an Australian organization called Scamwatch, and most importantly, his bank.

“I was devastated,” Calalang said. “I went to the Commonwealth Bank for help in September 2023 and told them what happened, and they investigated the case. After two months, they told me I had been scammed.”

CBA could do nothing to retrieve the funds Calalang had deposited into the new account — they were gone, along with most of his life savings.

“They said they could not recover the funds because the overseas bank would not cooperate.”

Now, at an age when many people look forward to retiring and enjoying time with their families, Calalang is left to start over with significantly depleted savings. “At this point, my family really is the only thing that is keeping me going.”

Protecting Yourself From Financial Fraud

A recent Citibank survey showed that while 90% of those surveyed felt confident they could spot the signs of a financial scam, almost one-third of those respondents had reported being victimized by such schemes. Like so much in these kinds of cases, the numbers don’t add up.

To protect yourself from similar scams, it’s important to know a few crucial facts. You should never share personal or financial information with anyone you don’t know, and keep information like PINs, Social Security and driver’s license numbers safe, secure and private. Always use long passwords that have a combination of letters, numbers and symbols, such as an exclamation point, to make these passwords harder to crack.

Shred any documents containing this type of information, never enter personal information on a computer that anyone you don’t trust can access and use two-factor authentication or biometric logins, such as fingerprint identification or facial recognition, to secure all of the accounts you access from your phone or other personal devices.

Trust Your Instincts

Most importantly, realize when a situation seems sketchy. If a stranger contacts you by email claiming to represent the estate of a relative you haven’t spoken with in a long time, chances are it’s a fraudulent scheme waiting to happen. To prevent this, contact relatives directly, call the main number of the bank scammers claim to be representing and, most importantly, trust your instincts. If sudden news of a surprise inheritance sounds too good to be true, that’s usually because it is.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: A Devastating Click: How an Email Scam Can Cost You Your Life Savings

2024-04-28T21:11:31Z dg43tfdfdgfd