How one man’s decision not to work from home saved him from losing $18K to scammers

An Australian man managed to stop scammers from stealing $18,692.87 in savings because of a crucial decision not to work from home that day.

Terence Ho, from Bunbury in Western Australia, was woken up at 5 a.m. in July this year to a text message purporting to be from Paypal, warning him that someone was trying to deduct Bitcoin from his account.

“I did nothing about it, thinking it was most likely one of those scam texts,” Ho told news.com.au.

Ho decided to head into the office — a decision that would ultimately save him his money.

At his desk, he saw a similar email waiting in his inbox from ‘Paypal,’ telling him that if he hadn’t authorized the transfer, he should call the helpline.

Ho said that “without thinking” he called the number from his office phone.

He went through to a call center and was told he was being referred to a financial specialist at PayPal.

The person on the other end of the phone was then able to tell him about his most recent purchases, further legitimizing them in his mind.

They told him he needed to provide a code for them to get clearance from Bendigo Bank.

He gave it to them — but in reality, this was a code he shared with scammers allowing them access to his bank account.

Ho had his Bendigo Bank app open in his hand while calling the fraudsters from his desk phone and was able to see “before my very eyes” $3,000 being drained out of the account.

“I was really very alarmed,” he said.

Then, as he was already seeing his hard-earned savings disappear, something else made him worried — another transaction was on its way out of his account.

When he asked the so-called PayPal representative, they told him there were several scammers in his account trying to take out his money.

The West Australian was once again coaxed into giving away the secure passcode texted to his phone but just as was about to give them the full number, something clicked.

“Something is not right here,” Ho recalled. “I said ‘Hang on, I will call you right back’.”

Ho knew there was a Bendigo Bank branch nearby so he “dashed” out of his office and was there within two minutes.

Ho showed the Bendigo Bank employee the text messages and emails and they told him straight away it was a scam.

They were able to block the account, locking out the scammers.

“When I left the bank, I was really shaken up at the thought I nearly lost $18,692.87,” Ho said, explaining that’s how much had been sitting in the account.

“I still shudder knowing I was so close to losing my life savings.

“I was supposed to be working from home that day, but decided to come in. They would have taken more from me definitely (if I hadn’t been in the office),” he said.

He traced the money they were able to extract out to a retail business based in Vietnam.

Ho has been unable to recover the $3,000 but is grateful he didn’t lose any more money.