An Australian woman lost almost $45,000 to scammers and the bank refused to get it all back for her… then they sent an email that was the final slap in the face

A woman who became suicidal after losing $44,000 to scammers in 25 minutes claims her bank offered her counseling sessions instead of trying to get a full refund.

Gay de Beer, 73, from Seaford in Melbourne, contemplated suicide after scammers conned her life savings from her Bendigo Bank account in May.

The bank recovered $7,200 and offered her another $2,000 in June, infuriating Ms. de Beer and prompting her to go public in November.

Ms de Beer told Daily Mail Australia the bank contacted her afterwards and made a “despicable” offer rather than trying to get the rest of the money back.

‘Bendigo Bank sent a letter offering me six free advice sessions. Isn’t that despicable?’ she said.

‘I can’t even respond to something like that. It’s absurd.’

Ms de Beer shared a copy of the email which said the bank ‘acknowledges’ the recent article and was ‘sorry to hear’ about the impact the scam had on her ‘health’.

“I understand that being a victim of fraud has both emotional and financial consequences,” it said.

Gay de Beer, 73, (photo) was defrauded of her savings after someone gained remote access to her bank account. She is now fighting to get her money back

Bendigo Bank offered the retiree counseling services after she was scammed instead of refunding her money (pictured)

The bank then offered advice sessions with an ‘external support agency’ which is ‘dedicated to providing specialist support and guidance’.

This latest insult came after Ms De Beer rejected the bank’s offer of ‘token’ compensation of $2,000 after they only managed to get back $7,200 of her savings.

The pensioner is angry and confused that the bank cannot pay her back because the scammers used Bendigo Bank accounts to transfer her money to.

Despite having the account names and numbers, Ms. de Beer claims the bank will not provide her with any information or updates, even if the scammer’s accounts are closed.

“It was transferred to two Bendigo Bank accounts,” she said.

‘And for privacy reasons they don’t want to go into details. So there is no transparency.’

The tech-savvy retiree, who does accounting and drives Uber to supplement her $540-a-week pension, never thought she would be scammed.

“I thought I was immune to all this,” she said.

Mrs de Beer’s bank was given the account names and numbers with which the scammers had transferred her money and concluded that ‘the transactions had been carried out’ by the pensioner (photo)

‘My screen went black. My computer is my work and it went completely black.

“Then it said to call Microsoft and I was given the number.”

Ms. de Beer said all she could think about at that moment was losing her job and she knew she had to get the computer repaired.

“The person I spoke to said there’s a direct deposit in my PayPal for $9,000,” she said.

‘I gave them access to my computer through a program.

“I even asked them, ‘Is this a scam?’

“They said, ‘No, we’ll help you, it’s not a scam. We do this all the time.’

“Yeah, you do it all the time, you cheat people, you fucking bastards.”

Ms de Beer said she looked at them on her computer but soon saw that they were transferring money from her account.

“I went to the branch, which is five minutes away, and said, ‘I think I’m being scammed,'” she said.

‘I was devastated.’

But after she complained to the bank, she received a letter on May 15.

“We have investigated the transactions on your behalf and have concluded that the transactions were executed by you,” the letter said.

The pensioner couldn’t believe the ‘heartless’ response, especially as she was at the bank when the transfers took place.

“Sorry, fuck that. I did not personally transfer that money,” she said.

“Bendigo has basically put the entire blame on me,” she said. They said I gave them my biometrics. I’m not saying I’m not to blame.

“But eventually it was transferred to two bank accounts in Bendigo. The banks should be there to help you. They don’t help you.’

Ms. de Beer’s advice to anyone like her who thinks they are above scams is to “trust nothing.”

‘Just don’t answer anything. “If someone says they are here to help you, don’t trust them,” she said.

“They’re so damn smart. They just get you in – hook, line and sinker.”

A spokesperson for Bendigo Bank said the bank takes cyber security “very seriously”.

“By working together with our customers, we can further reduce the incidence of scams and fraud,” he said.

‘It is important that customers take steps to protect themselves and do not share their passwords or allow anyone they do not know or trust to remotely log into their computer as it is extremely difficult to recover any money given to scammers has been transferred.

‘Wherever possible, Bendigo Bank seeks to recover money lost to fraud and it goes without saying that if the bank is at fault, we will reimburse customers for the loss of money.’

If you or someone you know needs support, please contact Lifeline Australia 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36.