Why an NAB worker stopped a customer from withdrawing his own cash

A National Bank of Australia employee has saved an elderly customer from losing all his money when she suspected a scam.

Sarah Woods, who has been a banker for 16 years, was working in a Hobart branch when a customer in his 80s asked to withdraw $10,000 for a kitchen renovation.

When he requested the cheque be made out to himself, Ms Woods became suspicious and knew 'something was up'.

'He was so fragile and he was in a panic,' she said.

In an statement, NAB said Ms Woods decided to press the customer further with questions to try and confirm if he was about to fall victim to a scam.

'Every time I asked him about his renovations he gave me a different answer,' she said.

'He was getting more and more uncomfortable and said 'I've really got to do this and get out of here' and that's when I knew I wasn't going to take the money out for him.

'I told him I was very concerned about what the money was for and these were red flags for a scam.'

Both Sarah and her branch manager escorted the man into a private office and when the elderly man realised what was happening he broke down. 

'He looked at me, held my hand and told me everything about the call he'd received, the demand the scammers made for a bank cheque and the lie they wanted him to tell me,' she said

'He said the scammers got angry with him on the phone, they made threats and told him not to trust bank staff.'

The scammers had convinced the customer to empty his account and said if staff asked what he was withdrawing the money for he needed to lie and say it was for renovations. 

Luckily, the long-time bankers' instinct were correct and Ms Woods stopped the scam transaction, saving the man his savings.

'He told me 'You've actually saved every cent of my money' and from that point on we had a little bond and he kept cuddling me,' she said.

The man left the bank happy but now aware of scams and demands for his money. 

'It's so rewarding to know I've saved this man's money but it shows that scammers will stop at nothing.'

NAB Executive, Group Investigations Chris Sheehan said it highlighted how important the the bank's fight against scams is. 

'Colleagues across the bank are working every day to reduce the impact of scams,' he said.

'We have frontline colleagues in branches like Sarah and on the phone at Fraud Ops, supporting customers in the moments after a scam has happened or been stopped to colleagues working on proactive initiatives designed to protect customers.'

Mr Sheehan admitted that although the bank has more to do, he was pleased they saw a decrease in scam losses between October and December 2023 - despite a high report of scams by customers.

The former Australian Federal Police executive said he believed initiatives like removing links from text messages and blocking payments to some high-risk crypto platforms are having a positive impact.