An 84-year-old Adelaide man is counting his lucky stars after a routine traffic stop by police prevented the elderly gentleman from depositing thousands of dollars into the bank account of scammers.
According to reports, the man had been travelling through Adelaide’s CBD in the hopes of locating a bank, when he was seen performing an illegal turn and subsequently pulled over by police.
As the elderly driver discussed his traffic infringement with police, he revealed that he had been looking for a specific bank to deposit a large sum of money after receiving a phone call from a bank manager earlier in the day.
Thankfully, police were wise to the situation and informed the man that he was on the verge of being scammed.
The man told police that the person on the phone claimed to be investigating bank fraud and that he had noticed two illegal transactions in the elderly man’s account.
He then told the would-be victim to withdraw a large amount of money and place it in another account to catch the people responsible.
Police are using this incident as a reminder to all Australians about remaining vigilant about scam phone calls.
“Never give your personal, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and the phone number came from a trusted source,” police said.
“Never send money online or transfer money to someone you haven’t met in person.”