A former firefighter mum says she lost her life savings after she fell for an investment scam.
Cath Mulalley, 55, a former London Fire Brigade member, emigrated to New Zealand with her husband in 2008 with the couple welcoming a baby four years later. In June, she received a call from a hoax advisor who convinced her to transfer $325,000 NZD (£170,000) into a new Citibank account.
While the Bank of New Zealand managed to recover $67,000 (£35,000), Cath tragically lost the rest of her money. The cash, which came from her pension, was intended to be invested for her daughter Eva, 10, the Mirror reports.
After husband Carl fell ill and was left unable to work, the couple decided to apply for life insurance cover. It was this event that made her a target for the devastating scam.
Cath only realised something was wrong when the scammers called her bank to tell her the money hadn't arrived, despite the fact her Citibank account was completely empty. "I thought it was strange so I checked my account and there was nothing there, in any of my accounts," she said.
"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 recover some of the money that was lost after chasing down the recipient account - a legitimate business account in Australia that had been taken over by scammers. However, Cath said the bank told her "there is nothing they can do" to retrieve the remaining cash.
Now a GoFundMe has been launched by Cath's friends to try and recover some of the money she lost. Her husband is still unable to work due to an adverse reaction to neck surgery.
"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," she added. "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 scams similar to the one Cath fell for - Cath's case is reportedly the largest amount that has been stolen. A spokesperson for BNZ said they are working hard to recover the remainder of 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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