We’re busting scams wide open this week.

There’s absolutely no shame in being scammed and there’s no shame in having a ‘close call’. Let’s get the conversation out into the open and share our stories.

An elderly Member trusted a member of her support community and almost lost her life savings. Red flags went up as $30,000 in transactions suddenly appeared on her account.

This Member has been with us for more than two decades.

Well and truly retired and enjoying life, she found herself caught in an elaborate scam, providing her card and online banking details to someone she trusted.

Within hours, these criminals had a spending spree across Melbourne using her card.

The Bank First team picked up on these unusually high transactions from stores we knew our Member wouldn’t normally purchase from and put a stop on her card and Internet Banking.

Victoria Police and the Member’s family are now involved.

Another example of be careful who you trust. A transaction of this size was unusual for this Member. It was flagged ‘suspicious’ and it turns out, it was.

Bank First is continuously reviewing payments in and out of Member accounts in an effort to detect and prevent scams. We noticed a large transaction that seemed out of place for our Member.

Reviewing the Member’s transaction history and something just didn’t feel right about this $40,000 payment.

The transfer was blocked by our payments experts and once the Member was contacted, our suspicions were confirmed that a scam was in progress.

A holiday for one of our Member’s is a trip interstate to visit family. That’s why a request to substantially increase his credit card limit for an overseas holiday raised questions.

At Bank First, our Members are more than just a number. Over the years, we get to know you and we love to hear about your family and your life adventures.

That’s why, when this Member called to ask for a $15,000 increase to his card limit to go on an overseas holiday, we asked questions.

Our Member’s voice was shaky and we asked him to tell us more about this overseas holiday. He didn’t waver from his story - he was going overseas.

In the background, our consultant could hear someone talking - actually coaching our Member and telling him what to say into the phone.

We’re here to protect our Members and their money and our consultant told him that they wouldn’t increase his limit because something didn’t seem right.

Our Member hung up and of course, our consultant hoped that by following her gut instinct, she had done the right thing.

The Member called back the next day. Yes, he had been pressured (aka potentially scammed) and he was grateful that we had not let the limit increase go ahead.

Think only ‘oldies’ get scammed? If you don’t bank online you won’t get caught? Think again. Scams can happen to anyone and they’re becoming more sophisticated.

A website you should have bookmarked and visit regularly is Scamwatch.

It has information relating to scams doing the rounds and importantly, how to spot a scam.

The scam statistics are terrifying. Both the dollar amount being lost and the number of people falling victim to scams.

If you do one thing today, log onto www.scamwatch.gov.au and get educated about what to be on the look-out for.