NAB worker saves Melbourne catfishing victim from sending $2,000 to her 'boyfriend'

A quick-thinking bank teller managed to save a woman from transferring $2,000 to a scammer overseas who she thought was her 'boyfriend'.

The woman, aged in her 60s, visited a NAB branch in Cranbourne, in Melbourne's southeast, in February wanting to send money to another account.

She told NAB Customer Advisor, Dilan Pathirannahalage, her boyfriend, who she hadn't met in real life and lives in Turkey, was unwell and needed $2,000 to fly to the UK for treatment.

The first red flag was the fact the customer didn't know her supposed boyfriend's surname.

Mr Pathirannahalage said as she scrolled through her texts trying to find his surname, he noticed the language of his messages was very affectionate.

'The messages were very lovey dovey, and looked like they were getting increasingly coercive,' he said.

The NAB worker took the woman into a private room to try get to the bottom of what was happening.

She told him her boyfriend's account had been frozen so she needed to send the money to a friend of his in Sydney, who would then transfer it.

'The reason she didn't know who she was transferring the funds to was because she had never met the person on the other end of the line who she thought was her boyfriend, and so didn't know their friends either,' Mr Pathirannahalage said.

'Even though the holes in the scammer's story were clear to me, she was blinded by her love for him. 

'These criminals are cunning and will prey on people's kindness to steal their money.'

While Mr Pathirannahalage was trying to explain to the woman she'd been scammed, her boyfriend then called her and demanded to know when the money was being transferred.

The NAB worker immediately contacted the fraud team to investigate and take action.

'I said ''I would never do this if I were you. I believe you are being scammed'',' he said.

'In the moment, customers don't see you as someone protecting them from losing their money. You are the person who is breaking their heart.'

After speaking with the woman, the bank teller said she was grateful she'd been saved from losing an entire paycheck. 

The amount of NAB customers becoming victims to romance scams has increased 29 per cent year-on-year.

Australians lost $33million to romance and friendship scams in 2023 alone, according to Scamwatch.