A former London firefighter has lost over £100,000 of her life savings after being duped by an investment scam in her new home of New Zealand.
Cath Mulalley, who once worked for the London Fire Brigade, but who emigrated Down Under with her family in 2008, fell for the swindle in June. An unexpected call from a hoax advisor led to her transferring $325,000 NZD (£170,000) into a new Citibank account.
It was all an elaborate set-up and although the Bank of New Zealand has managed to claw back $67,000 (£35,000), she has lost the rest. She and her family were planning to invest some of their savings for their daughter Eva, 10, who was born after the couple went through four years of IVF treatment, reports MyLondon.
They had applied for life insurance cover after her husband Carl fell ill and was left unable to work. And it was then that the sting was put into operation.
Not once did she consider she was falling for a scam when she turned up at the Bank of New Zealand’s branch in Nelson and asked staff there to transfer the money to her new Citibank account. It was only when the swindlers called her bank to tell her the money had not arrived, even though her bank account was empty.
Speaking to The Mirror, she explained: “I thought it was strange so I checked my account and there was nothing there, in any of my accounts. I rang BNZ to ask them where the hell is the money if it’s not with Citibank and not in my accounts, and they kept putting me on hold and transferring me.
“I kept ringing back and demanding answers until one guy told me he would call me back. He called me back two days later and passed it to his manager because he thought something wasn’t right – a few days later they told me it was a scam.
“Apart from sheer panic, it’s quite hard to describe how I feel. I have panic attacks about what I’m going to do because I just don’t know.”
BNZ was able to retrieve some of the money that was lost after chasing down the recipient account, which was a legitimate business account in Australia that had been taken over by scammers. Beyond that, Cath said the bank insists ‘there is nothing they can do’ to retrieve the remaining money.
Cath says BNZ failed to follow standard banking protocols by checking with the Citibank branch in Auckland to see if the account was real. Had they done so, the scam “would never have happened”, she insisted.
Cath adds that when she showed the fraudulent paperwork she had been given by the conman to her UK bank, Halifax, staff told her there was “no way they would have transferred the money”.
She went on: “I’ve transferred large amounts of money before when we left the UK, but I was still nervous about depositing such a large amount.
“I expected the bank to check the details of the transfer and the accounts. That’s what you would expect from any bank trusted to look after your money.”
To help her out, Cath’s friends have launched a GoFundMe to try and make up some of what they’ve lost. With her husband still being unable to work due to an adverse reaction to a routine neck surgery, they family are struggling to get through the Cost of Living crisis.
Cath said: “I don’t know if Carl will ever be able to go back to work again and I have lost nearly all my pension from the London Fire Brigade. I had always coped with living in the house because I knew one day we would renovate, but now we can’t afford to.”
Police in New Zealand are reportedly investigating a number of similar scams, with Cath’s case being the largest amount that has been stolen. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for BNZ said they are still working hard to recover Cath’s money.
The spokesperson said: “We have thoroughly investigated the circumstances that led to this fraud and have complied with all obligations under New Zealand banking regulations. We do not believe we could have done more to prevent it.
“Unfortunately, our customer was unknowingly intent on entering into a financial arrangement with a scammer well before going into our branch and asking our people to assist her in completing the transaction. The transaction was initiated by the customer, the information and paperwork provided and the conversation with our people in the branch, provided no evidence that the planned transaction was a scam.”
They added: “These investment scams prey on peoples’ trust in reputable brands and mimic investment firms and banks closely. No organisation is immune from impersonation.”
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