A WAR veteran felt his “heart had been ripped out” when he lost £10,000 to a cruel scam.
Shane Arnold was tricked into sharing his bank details after he received a fake email telling him he was entitled to a refund.
The 71-year-old said the trick was especially convincing as the man posing as the scammer spoke to him in a “posh accent.”
After he entered his banking details, the accused scammer allegedly gathered enough information to call Arnold the following day, posing as a security officer from Commonwealth Bank.
Shane told 9News: “(It was) extremely convincing, he spoke in a posh English accent.”
But he was none the wiser that he was actually speaking to 19-year-old Kahlid Mahamud from Melbourne who was using AI to disguise his voice.
Shane was reportedly told his account had been compromised and ordered to put his bank cards in a bag to be picked up by a driver.
Then, a few hours later, the accused youngster reportedly withdrew thousands of dollars to go on a bizarre spending spree.
He allegedly purchased dozens of gift cards from Kmart, a strawberry milk drink and a Magnum ice cream before treating himself to a brand new iphone.
Mahamud has been charged over the incident and while his case has just begun Shane is fighting to get his cash back.
The deflated grandfather said: “I’ve worked for 50-odd years to get that money,” and added: he felt like (his) heart had been ripped out”.
Shane said the bank should take some of the blame and has lodged a report to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
The Commonwealth Bank has reportedly only offered to reimburse him £790.
Shane feels everyone who’s been scammed deserves to have their money returned to them.
“None of them deserved to be scammed and none of them did anything wrong,” he said.
CBA said Arnold’s case was being managed by AFCA.
It comes as one woman gave her online lover £321,000 when he told her he was being held captive by smugglers and she can now barely afford food.
Moe Lenart was pleased she’d found a match online after her husband of 14 years, Philip Malcom, died.
Shortly after logging onto the website, Moe struck up a conversation with a man who called himself Joel Christopher Junior, although that is now known to be a pseudonym.
Over the course of the next few days ‘Joel’ told Moe how he was also from the USA, but involved in the diamond mining industry and therefore had to regularly travel abroad.
