GEOFFREY de Jonge is taking action to protect his retirement funds, after a fraudulent bank transfer of $500,000 in September last year has resulted in financial loss, stress, and trauma.
Geoffrey contacted the Sentinel Times to reiterate the importance of protecting retirement money from scammers and highlighted the lack of action taken by the bank to recover the assets.
It was after the sale of their property that Geoffrey and his wife began looking into ways to better invest in their retirement; after thoroughly researching bonds – hearing that they made a larger return than their recent 3.2% - they made the decision to make the transfer.
In September 2023, Geoffrey signed a transfer document with his bank to have $500,000 transferred over to HSBC; however, once the transfer was cleared from the account, he immediately detected a red flag – the account name was different to his instructions.
On September 7, Geoffrey made contact with the bank by phone to cancel the debit, but due diligence was not exercised. “The bank explained that they would put a stop on the account, but the transfer had already been processed into the incorrect clearing account.” A different name to what Geoffrey had written on his transfer document.
Despite communication from Geoffrey, his bank did not act until December 30, 2023. During this lengthy period, Geoffrey and his wife suffered great stress “We are self-funded retirees, which the bank was aware of,” he said.
“Losing those funds, directly caused the stress and consequential heart turn in myself and a major heart attack and minor stroke in my wife, requiring hospitalisation for more than a week. There is doubt that she will fully recover.”
“It is understood that when I began looking into bonds in August of 2023, that scammers were imitating HSBC and somebody added numbers and a different account name to the direct debit form – therefore it was the bank who was defrauded or deceived – not us,” explained Geoffrey.
In an investigation into the matter, the funds were transferred back to Geoffrey in February 2024; however, due to the fraudulent exchange, the scams department or complaints management have not addressed the consequent issues, including the loss of interest on the funds during the period of September 2023 to February 2024 – of which Geoffrey has calculated to be over $13,000 – subject to variations.
“The fraudulent account was deregistered six years ago and had a questionable reputation, I can’t understand how this got through without red flags,” said Geoffrey.
Geoffrey is also questioning the bank’s response time on the issue, let alone the compensation for the stress and trauma caused by the error and delay in rectifying the issue, as well as the absence of an apology from the bank and absence of communication.
Geoffrey and his wife are taking further action with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and are prepared to consider compensation for stress and medical episodes, and the interest lost.
