When the scammer is in your ear at the bank counter

A woman walked into an ANZ branch in South Australia and asked to withdraw enough cash to buy a car.

The teller, Vicki, asked her what car.

She couldn't say. Not the make, not the model. She just kept repeating that she needed the money today.

She kept her money, because a teller slowed things down and kept talking. Not everyone does.

What's actually changed

ANZ staff report that more customers are arriving at the counter while still connected to the scammer — headphones in, or a phone tucked into a pocket, taking live instructions on exactly what to say as the conversation happens.

Not a story learned in advance. A voice in the ear, adjusting.

And it doesn't stop when the bank's systems notice. ANZ say the rehearsed answers are often repeated after a transaction has already been flagged for review.

Why this one is different

Nearly every protection you have assumes one thing: that when someone asks you a direct question about your money, you will answer it honestly.

• The fraud engine flags an unusual transfer — then a human asks you what it's for.
• The teller notices something odd — and asks a probing question.
• The bank rings to verify — and asks you to confirm.

The tell isn't the story. It's the emptiness behind it.

You cannot spot a coached answer by whether it sounds plausible. “I'm buying a car” is entirely plausible. So is a home renovation, a family loan, moving money between your own accounts.

What a real reason has is a life behind it. You know the make and the model. You know the tradesman's name and when he's starting. You've been talking about it for weeks.

A given reason is one sentence with nothing underneath. Ask a second question and there is no second answer.

Three things nobody legitimate ever does

You don't need to judge whether a story is true. You need to notice an instruction no honest party would give.

1. Stay on the line while you go in. No bank needs to be connected to you inside a branch. Ever.
2. Tell you to deny being told. “If they ask whether anyone instructed you, say no.” Nothing legitimate requires you to conceal that you were advised.
3. Cast the staff as the obstacle. “They'll try to stop you.” “They're not trained on this.” “The bank doesn't want you making money.” A real bank tells you the opposite: be honest with us, that's the point of asking.

The honest bit: what a checking service can and can't do

We build a scam-checking service, so this is where we're supposed to tell you it solves this. It doesn't, and pretending otherwise would be its own small con.

Where checking does work is earlier and sideways:

• Earlier. Almost none of these start at the counter. They start with a text, an email or a first call — something forwardable, days before anyone withdraws anything. That message is stoppable, and it's the one worth checking.
• Sideways. When a check comes back as a scam, the people who chose to be told get told. That matters precisely because the person in the middle has been captured. Someone outside the call learns something is happening — and one phone call from a daughter can do what no warning to the victim will.

What actually works: a rule agreed in advance

Coaching defeats judgement in the moment, so the defence cannot be judgement in the moment. It has to be a decision already made, when nobody was frightened.

1. Agree the one rule, out loud. “Nobody from a bank will ever ask you to stay on the phone while you move money.” Said to each other now, it becomes a rule being broken rather than a judgement to make under pressure.
2. Agree that hanging up is always allowed. Nobody legitimate is offended by being rung back. Give each other explicit permission to end any call about money, with no explanation owed.
3. Name one person to ring first. Not for permission — just to say it out loud. Coaching depends entirely on the victim never speaking to anyone outside the call.
4. Say plainly that being caught is not shameful. The people who lose the most are the ones too embarrassed to ask. Removing the shame in advance is a practical control, not a kindness.

If you think it's happening right now

1. Ask them to hang up — not mute, not speaker. Hang up entirely. A live scammer will otherwise talk over you.
2. Ring the bank yourself, on the number on the back of their card. Tell them what you think is happening. Banks would far rather take that call and be wrong.
3. If they're already at a branch, tell a staff member. They are trained for exactly this, and they can slow it down — which is what saved the woman in Adelaide.
4. Afterwards, be kind about it. How this is handled decides whether you hear about the next one.

For scale: Australians reported losing $2.18 billion to scams in 2025. People over 65 are about 17 per cent of the population and 26.5 per cent of the losses, with the highest median loss of any age group — though the group statistically most likely to be scammed at all is 35 to 44. This is not only something that happens to older people.

Common questions