A 73-year-old Erskine man who narrowly avoided being conned out of $300,000 has warned people to watch out for investment scams.
Lang Baker had recently made a tidy profit on a home sale but was unhappy with the interest that money was making in his bank, so he jumped on Google for a spot of research.
“That same day, I got a phone call from a guy called Steve Jackson who said he was a manager at Suncorp,” Mr Baker said.
The man told Mr Baker he had Commonwealth government bonds that had 12 months to run on them and the bank was paying 5.5 per cent with a 0.4 per cent commission.
Mr Baker said he knew the interest was high, but the man claimed rates were higher when the bonds were first issued.
“I filled out a form with copies of my passport, my date of birth, the bank account the money was coming from and a copy of a utilities bill,” he said.
“Two days later, he rings and says you’ve been approved and that he would email me the bank guarantees for the bonds and the instructions of which account to put the money into.
“I then became suspicious because the bank account was from the Commonwealth Bank, not Suncorp.”
Mr Baker’s next step saw him avoid the $300,000 nightmare.
“I rang Suncorp and they informed me it was a scam,” he said.
“A simple phone call to Suncorp saved me losing $300,000.”
An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission spokesperson said many investment scams were doing the rounds at the moment, including cryptocurrency scams, imposter…
